About two weeks after that.

Following Alon’s opinion, soldiers began gathering at the mage tower.

Soldiers and knights were flocking in with resolute expressions, as if preparing for a final decisive battle.

Their numbers had already grown large enough to fill the entire area around the mage tower.

A truly enormous scale.

And at the mage tower, where armies were assembling nonstop day after day—

“Yutia.”

“Rine, long time no see.”

Rine and Yutia were there as well.

“Your main body is still—over in Fildagreen?”

Rine nodded at Yutia, who asked with the same calm smile as always.

“Yes. Like I told you last time, it’s still not a situation where I can move.”

“That’s a shame. It would definitely be a huge help to Teacher.”

Yutia spoke like she truly found it regrettable, and Rine quietly looked at her for a moment.

Eyes like she was turning something over in her head.

“What is it?”

When Yutia asked at Rine’s expression, Rine shook her head once or twice.

“I just have something to think about. And you don’t have to worry about that part.”

“Which part?”

“Help. I think I’ll be able to give it, for now.”

Yutia slowly nodded.

“So, why did you come?”

She asked Rine.

“Can’t I come just because?”

Rine asked back.

But Yutia didn’t erase her smile.

“To me, it doesn’t look like that.”

“...That’s kind of hurtful.”

“Is it? When you want to see someone, you always make up a very trivial reason. Like when you were little, you’d come ask me the meaning of a word you obviously already knew, pretending you didn’t know it—”

“E-Excuse me! Why are you suddenly bringing up things from so long ago...!”

Rine’s face flushed slightly as she hurriedly tried to stop her.

Yutia laughed leisurely, then naturally sat down in the office she’d been assigned.

“That’s how well I know you, is what I’m saying. After all, we did spend time together.”

“...Haa.”

“So, what’s the business?”

Rine let out a helpless sigh, fell silent for a while, then—

“Yutia... did you know about Pluto?”

She asked.

“Of course. You showed it to me yourself.”

Yutia answered, but Rine shook her head.

“No. I mean ‘before.’”

“Before?”

“Yes. I’m asking whether you knew about it even before I used Pluto.”

At that question, Yutia fell silent.

Instead, she just stared at Rine with eyes that gave nothing away.

How much time passed like that?

“...Why are you asking that?”

Yutia’s calm voice rang out, and Rine fixed her gaze on her.

“I know you’re hiding something, Yutia.”

“......”

“But I’m not going to ask about that. Because you wouldn’t answer anyway.”

“You know me well.”

“More than that—because I know you, too.”

“Hmm—”

As if a little amused, the tail end of Yutia’s voice rose.

But—

“Is that so?”

“Yes. Because you wouldn’t do anything that would make us take a loss.”

At Rine’s repeated certainty, Yutia wavered, if only slightly.

The smile didn’t vanish from her face.

She was still the same.

The smiling face.

The relaxed eyes.

But for a brief instant—

that she’d stiffened like that—

wasn’t hard to notice.

“So I’m not going to ask about your secret.”

Rine continued.

“Because there’s only one thing I’m curious about.”

In the first place, what she wanted an answer to wasn’t Yutia’s reaction.

“...What is it?”

“Who destroyed the Ilanef Empire?”

Rine stared straight at Yutia.

“Is that important?”

Yutia replied calmly, still looking at Rine without any particular expression.

“...Up until now, I thought the world was destroyed by sin.”

Rine told Yutia what she had found out so far.

Starting with the fact that Pluto and sin were made in the Ilanef Empire.

That sin’s name was the Ilanef Empire’s guardian weapon.

And that sin was never used while the empire was falling.

“You investigated a lot.”

“My library has all information... except information about you.”

At Rine’s words, Yutia didn’t give any particular answer.

She just—

tap— tap—

kept thinking, drumming her index finger on the desk.

Without pressing her, Rine simply stayed quiet.

Because Rine also knew well

Yutia wasn’t the kind of person who would easily hand over information just because someone pressed.

How much time passed?

After staying silent for a while, Yutia soon said to Rine—

“First, I can’t answer what you said.”

“...I see.”

“But I can give you a few hints.”

She said that.

“...H-hints?”

“Yes. Hints.”

Yutia nodded with a smile again, thought about what to tell her, then—

“First, just like you investigated, it’s true that sin was made in the Ilanef Empire. And likewise, that it’s a ‘guardian weapon.’”

Which means, just like what you saw in the library, sin didn’t destroy the Ilanef Empire.

—Yutia added, then—

“Second—”

Staring quietly at Rine, she let the word drop.

“Monster blood.”

“...Mon—ster blood?”

“Look up monster blood in the library. Then you might be able to get closer to the answer you want.”

Yutia smiled as she finished.

Rine opened her mouth like she still had more to ask, but—

knock knock—

At the sound of knocking, she had no choice but to close it again.

“Cardinal Yutia. It’s almost time for the meeting.”

At the voice, Yutia stood up.

“I guess our talk ends here. I’ll go first, so—”

Leaving behind the words—

—hope you find the answer—

she stepped out and left the room.

And then.

Left alone in the office, Rine—

“...Monster blood...?”

quietly murmured the word Yutia had left behind, under her breath.

####

About another week passed after that.

Most of the troops had assembled around the mage tower, and they began marching toward the fallen Ashtalon.

“......”

The sight of an army large enough to more than wrap around the mage tower moving all at once was so tremendous that even Alon, who didn’t have much “romance” for scenes like this, felt a shiver run through him for a moment.

That was how massive the gathered army was.

“Hoo—”

But separate from that shiver, Alon let out a sigh that was hard to tell whether it was relief or a lament.

“Why is that, Marquis?”

Pernia, who had been diligently calculating something beside him, turned to look at Alon.

“I just have a lot to think about.”

“About strategy?”

“That too.”

Pernia nodded and continued.

“Mm— I can see how you’d be uneasy. Strategy collapses in an instant if it differs from what you expected. But—if it’s like what you said, Marquis, it kind of feels like there isn’t any other way?”

“That’s probably true. But if something goes wrong, we’d have no choice but to assume sacrifices.”

At that, Pernia tilted her head and answered.

“...Marquis, if I watch you, you’re kind of fascinating.”

“What part do you mean?”

“That part.”

“...This part?”

“I mean—this part where you’re trying not to accept sacrifices.”

“...Is that strange?”

“It’s strange, isn’t it? In the first place, it’s impossible for war or subjugation not to involve sacrifice. Even small conflicts have sacrifices. That’s an idealistic story.”

Alon scratched his head.

Because she wasn’t wrong.

“Still, can’t I at least think about it?”

“For something like that, when you think those thoughts, your emotions show in a way that’s unlike you.”

“...Is that so?”

“Yes. Every time, you look deeply depressed. Not like you compromised with reality, but like someone who really wants to make an ideal into reality?”

“...Really?”

Alon belatedly touched his own face and tilted his head.

Of course, Alon wasn’t an idealist.

He knew well there had to be sacrifices.

In fact, normally he didn’t feel pressured or sad about it.

So he only held doubt at Pernia’s words for a moment, and then—

“Ah, right. By the way, how is the magic we’re going to use?”

“Preparations are finished for now. We can control it.”

“Then there won’t be any problems with the plan.”

“Right. If it doesn’t exceed our power like expected, nothing should go wrong. But—what are you doing?”

He looked at Pernia’s hands.

Even while talking, her hands had kept moving without rest.

Pernia belatedly exclaimed.

“Ah, this?”

“Yes.”

“It’s scripture I got from Sili.”

“Scripture?”

“Yes.”

“...Why are you suddenly reading that?”

“Mm—it’s not so much reading the content. I thought I found something good as a trigger word.”

“Trigger word?”

“Yes. I stopped after interpreting magic, ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ but back then, when we were using the formula, we researched it, right?”

“Ah.”

Alon nodded.

It was true that until they interpreted and used magic, they’d set their direction as using Reverse Heavens and kept researching.

“So you’ve been researching that?”

“Yeah. Strictly speaking, this is really just me finding trigger words, and this is the real thing.”

Pernia’s fingertip pointed to the side of the scripture.

In empty spaces here and there, activation formulas were written.

And while Pernia and Alon talked about this and that, when exactly a full week had passed since they’d been moving in step with the marching army—

“......”

Alon arrived in Ashtalon.

No, could you even call this place Ashtalon?

“...Ugh—”

A knight standing beside Alon openly frowned.

Just like the knight’s reaction, the first thing that struck Alon was the fishy scent of blood.

Next, countless mountains of corpses welcomed Alon.

And the last thing visible was—

[.......]

Far away.

In the middle of Ashtalon’s shattered capital, a single red knight stood silently.

That knight’s condition didn’t look good, even if you tried to lie.

The helmet the knight wore looked extremely old.

And the worn armor, bulging out like blood vessels, made those who looked at it feel uncomfortable.

““......””

But even with that sin standing right in front of them in that state, no one let out laughter or mockery.

Rather, what could be felt on the faces of the knights and soldiers was tension and fear.

The red knight wasn’t doing anything.

Just standing there, lofty.

And yet everyone here was sharing the exact same emotion—

no, the same sense of kinship as living creatures.

The instinctive sensation every living thing feels when something dangerous is in front of it.

“......”

In that situation, Alon stared at the Sin of Wrath—

no, “that thing” that had once been Elivan.

Even now, Alon still didn’t know anything.

He couldn’t get a feel for why Elivan tried to spread Elivan’s achievements widely, or understand why Elivan felt anxious about dealing with strange text, or know why Elivan had blankly stared at a night sky Elivan didn’t even like.

He knew nothing.

But now.

He did know what he had to do.

So—

“...Blackie.”

He said quietly.

[Kyuu.]

And the moment stars rose in the red sky, as if stained by blood and the stench of blood—

[So you’ve come—]

From too far away for anyone to hear, from the middle of the shattered capital—

[Closed-Eyed One.]

The sin quietly murmured.