Right after I came to.

“So. Why’d you pull a prank like that?”

“Mmm—so I could let you know, Godfather, that there are people around you whose consciences aren’t exactly clear?”

Alon’s eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at Rine, who answered so calmly.

“...Really?”

“Mmm......partly?”

‘Even so, there isn’t a single friend who’d actually stab you in the back,’ Rine added with a smile.

Then, as if for no reason at all, she swept her gaze over Alon’s face and confessed what she really meant.

“Because I can’t stay long anyway.”

“Hm? What are you talking about?”

Rine nodded, then lowered her gaze and subtly pointed down.

“...Huh?”

Alon saw it.

Rine’s body was slowly disappearing, starting from the tips of her feet.

“What—?”

Alon furrowed his brow at the incomprehensible situation.

But only for a moment.

“Don’t worry too much. I told you last time, didn’t I? That I’m here with the help of an artifact.”

“Then what’s happening right now—”

“My usage time ran out. Normally, I could’ve held on for at least another month or two, but... well, something happened, didn’t it?”

“...If you use power, the time gets shorter?”

“Mmm. Structurally, it’s closer to overload than anything, but yes.”

At Rine’s explanation, Alon nodded.

She hadn’t revealed all her strength in this battle against the sins—

but in the end, it had still been a fierce fight.

“Anyway—so for a while, I won’t be able to see you again.”

Rine murmured as if a little lonely.

For a split second, a strange trace of disappointment flickered across her expression.

Catching that moment, Alon answered.

“I’ll come see you soon.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

Then, as if that faint disappointment had been a lie, Rine wiped it away and smiled with a fox-like grin.

“...You.”

I got played.

Alon couldn’t bring himself to finish the sentence.

“I’m satisfied. I was the first face you saw after you woke up, Godfather, and now you’re even saying you’ll come see me in person.”

But Rine kept playing innocent, still wearing that relaxed, fox-like smile.

“I’ll be waiting, Godfather.”

With that light farewell, she vanished completely.

Thunk—

The moment Rine disappeared, something dropped to the floor—an object that looked a lot like the lithium batteries he’d seen back when he lived in his previous world.

The moment Alon picked it up—

“Ah, Marquis!?”

“...Evan.”

Evan opened the door and came in.

When Alon greeted him flatly, Evan froze in shock for only a moment before hurrying over in a fluster.

“Are you all right?!”

“Yeah. Not bad.”

After checking Alon over from head to toe, Evan let out a relieved sigh.

Then he cautiously watched Alon’s face and asked,

“...Um, is your memory all right?”

“Memory?”

“Yes. Actually, after you collapsed, Marquis, Rine said your memories might be slightly unstable.”

After thinking for a moment, Alon decided to play a small prank.

“...It is true I feel like there are some blank spaces in my memory.”

“R-really?”

“Well, you don’t need to worry. I do remember promising I’d cut your pay in half.”

“...What?”

“What’s wrong?”

“No, it’s not that, it’s... th-that is, um—could it be... you meant increasing it by half?”

“I remember it as cutting it in half.”

“N-no—”

Seeing Evan’s face instantly go pale, Alon let out a snort of laughter.

####

After that, as if they’d been waiting, the sick visits continued.

The very first to come—

for some reason—were Basiliora and Blackie, in Yutia’s hands.

[Kyuu—kyuuung!]

[From now on, I will protect you—!]

He didn’t know what had happened, but the two of them looked like they were trembling a little.

Alon nodded for now.

After that, people who knew Alon began visiting one by one.

Of course, in the middle of conversations, there were times when Ryang-a or Seollang would discreetly ask about the memories they’d tried to plant.

And times when Penia would look at Alon with an expression full of expectation.

But for the sake of the blanket they’d all sleep under, Alon decided to pretend he didn’t know.

Anyway, after a few more days of being showered with visits, and only once his body had fully recovered, Alon could finally learn the details of the current situation.

“A completely new type?”

“Yes. We’re calling them monsters for now, but after the Milky Way fell, these are entities we’ve never seen before. Their forms are extremely diverse, too.”

“Is the situation that bad?”

At Alon’s question, Evan shook his head.

“No. According to the reports, it’s not that bad.”

“...Really?”

“Yes. If the monsters had just pushed in however they pleased, that’d be one thing—but right now, it’s just that they’ve been spotted. They aren’t attacking villages. But—”

“But?”

“If they start attacking villages, the situation will become extremely troublesome.”

“And if you add strange text on top of that......”

“Ah, that part is fine.”

“Fine?”

“Yes. I don’t know if it’s just because the timing overlapped, but they said after the Milky Way fell, even the remaining strange text all disappeared.”

“...All the strange text?”

“Yes.”

The Milky Way—Divine blood—fell, and the strange text vanished in step with it.

...Was that really a coincidence?

A brief doubt rose up, but Alon soon nodded.

“Other than that, is there anything else?”

“Mmm—aside from the meeting tomorrow I mentioned earlier, there doesn’t seem to be anything major to worry about. If it’s anything else... Elivan, maybe?”

“Elivan......”

As Alon murmured, Evan quickly added,

“He still hasn’t come out of his coma.”

“...How long do you think it’ll take?”

“Even Rine said she doesn’t really know.”

Alon let out a sigh.

To be honest, he’d been hoping Elivan would be awake by the time he woke up.

Because there was a lot he wanted to ask him.

“Anyway, for now, that’s about everything that happened while you were bedridden, Marquis.”

Alon nodded and let out a long breath.

In truth, after this fight ended, he had a lot more to think about, too.

Even if he set aside everything related to Elivan, it was the same.

First was divinity.

More precisely, the changes that had occurred in Alon’s body.

Alon calmly closed his eyes and entered a contemplative state.

What he should have seen, as always, was divinity.

Yes. Normally.

‘There’s nothing.’

Alon saw an inner world that was nothing but pitch-black.

He even wondered if he’d made a mistake and failed to enter his inner world—

but that wasn’t it.

Which meant this was Alon’s inner world, and that all the divinity that was supposed to be here had disappeared.

Even that divinity that had emitted such an ominous light—everything.

A shocking situation.

And yet, Alon could keep himself relatively calm.

Because divine power was still working just fine.

His divinity was gone, but he could still use divine power properly—

that was Alon’s first concern.

And the second was the Divine blood that had fallen to the ground—something he had never once seen in Psychedelia.

Alon had never seen the story after Psychedelia even once.

Of course.

What he’d enjoyed was a game that ended with dealing with the sins.

So now, Alon had to find out about Divine blood.

About the Divine blood that wanted to destroy this world.

Fortunately, Alon had a place where he could obtain information.

“...This. You said Elivan had it?”

“Yes.”

The Jewel of the Closed-Eyed One.

Alon silently stared at the black crystal he’d been searching for this whole time—

the one he had no idea why it had been in Elivan’s arms.

He felt that if he had this, it would be enough to resolve at least the questions he was holding right now.

About Divine blood.

And about himself.

And then, finally, Alon’s third concern.

“...What was that?”

It was the voice he’d heard before, when the Milky Way had fallen.

[S̷o̸ ̷n̶o̷w̴ ̸y̸o̶u̷ ̶c̴a̵n̸ ̸f̶i̷n̸a̶l̷l̵y̸ ̶s̷e̸e̷,̵ ̷h̸u̶h̷.]̑̇͗̓͡ ̒̆͞

[A̴l̶r̷i̴g̴h̴t̸ ̵t̴h̸e̴n̶—̷s̵h̸o̵w̶ ̷m̴e̶.]҇̃̋ ̀͋̄̇͞

[F̷i̶n̸a̶l̷l̵y̸.̷ ̷F̷i̶n̸a̶l̷l̵y̸.̷ ̷F̷i̶n̸a̶l̷l̵y̸.̷ ̷F̷i̶n̸a̶l̷l̵y̸.̷ ̷F̷i̶n̸a̶l̷l̵y̸—̷]҇̒̂̔̽͛ 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

It had been filled with heavy noise, so he hadn’t been able to understand it properly.

...But even just grasping what he could hear, it couldn’t help but be strange.

Something that sounded as if they had known Alon from before.

‘...What is it?’

Alon found it extremely baffling.

Of course, if he assumed they had been looking down at him, then that line wasn’t completely incomprehensible.

But that only made it plausible in terms of them ‘knowing’ him—

it didn’t explain the goodwill being conveyed, so it was still just as strange.

And besides, while there were those sending goodwill toward him, there was also incomprehensible malice mixed in.

‘And on top of that, that last voice...’

Alon recalled it.

Right before he lost consciousness after hearing the voices of the Divine blood falling—

[C̷o̶m̸e̴ ̷t̸o̴ ̷t̶h̷e̸ ̷e̶a̷s̴t̷e̸r̶n̸ ̷e̶d̷g̸e̵,̷ ̷m̸y̶ ̷f̷r̷i̶e̸n̸d̷.̵ ̷T̸h̷e̶n̸ ̷I̵’̷l̸l̷ ̵h̸a̷n̸d̷ ̶o̵v̵e̷r̷ ̷w̸h̵a̶t̸’̶s̸ ̵p̸r̷e̵c̵i̸o̶u̸s̶ ̷t̸o̸ ̷y̴o̴u̷.]̏̀̏̈́̋͠

A whisper-like voice at his ear—especially, a very tiny voice.

Of course, at first, he hadn’t even known what it had said.

Back then, it had only sounded like murmuring.

But after he regained consciousness, and after recalling that noise-like mumbling again and again,

Alon could interpret it.

[Come to the eastern edge, my friend. Then I’ll hand over what’s precious to you.]

Back then, it had been so quiet he couldn’t understand it.

...Maybe it had even been a voice that came from behind his back.

Alon fell silent for a while.

Because he had no idea why beings that seemed like Divine blood would say something like that to Alon.

But Alon soon shook his head.

Either way, at a point in time when he had no information, it was impossible to reach a conclusion.

“Evan.”

“Yes, Marquis.”

“After we finish next week’s meeting, we’ll go to Raksas.”

“Suddenly...? Well—yes. Understood.”

Evan bowed his head, and Alon let out a slow sigh.

It was late at night.

A day after that.

With the fall of Ashtalon, and with the strange entity monsters appearing outside, a meeting was held.

Even up until he entered the conference hall, Alon—who attended his seat—honestly hadn’t been thinking anything at all.

No, to be precise—

“...So then, Marquis Palatio—no, what does the king think?”

“...Huh—th-that, what? Yes—no... yes...?”

...Not until Karmakses /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ III, looking a little embarrassed and awkward, referred to him as king.

“...??”

Not long after he regained consciousness, countless question marks rose over Alon’s head for the first time in a while.