“—I guess I should pull a little prank too?”

The moment Rine’s words fell, only a cold, stiff silence flowed through the room.

But only for a moment.

Yutia, who’d been a little startled, began to slowly smooth her expression.

Yutia’s face calmed down with startling speed.

As if what had happened just now had been a lie, she quickly recovered her smile and calmly tried to—

“Th- that...?”

—she couldn’t.

Even to Hidan standing right beside them, it was clearly a trembling voice.

It showed Yutia’s agitation, and as if she’d expected that, Rine smiled.

“Like you know, Yutia, I’ve been trying to protect the Marquis.”

A concise statement.

But even with just that, Yutia could easily grasp, more or less, how that magic orb had been made.

Forcing a smile somehow, Yutia stepped forward toward Rine.

“Th- that’s... right.”

“Yes. Are you not going to say anything, Yutia?”

“Me?”

“Yes. I suddenly remembered that not long ago you said it wasn’t good for me to be keeping watch, or something like that.”

At Rine’s reply, Yutia flinched for a beat.

Still keeping her smile, she moved closer to Rine and naturally brought her hand toward the magic orb Rine was holding, but—

“No, of course not. I know very well how much you care about Teacher—”

Whoosh—!

—unfortunately, Yutia’s hand passed through empty air for no reason.

“......”

“......”

Yutia and Rine looked at each other with smiling faces.

“Hik—”

Hidan, hiding in the shadow, hiccuped without realizing it.

At the same time, Yutia’s hand headed toward Rine again.

Whoosh—!

Her hand grabbed empty air again.

Yutia didn’t give up and moved her hand one more time.

Whoosh—

Whoosh—

Whoosh—

...But she still didn’t manage to grab the magic orb, whose durability didn’t have much left.

“This prank is a bit much, isn’t it? Rine.”

“Is it, Yutia? I’m not moving that quickly. Someone like you can grab it easily, can’t you?”

Rine winked as if to needle her.

Just like she said, if Yutia truly wanted to, she could snatch the magic orb from Rine.

The only reason she wasn’t ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) doing it was because Rine had already cracked it.

Of course, she hadn’t completely broken it.

The magic orb would still activate properly, even now.

But if Yutia used even a little strength to wrest it from Rine—

it would definitely shatter beyond the point of being fixed.

“Are you... trying to pick a fight?”

Without realizing it, Yutia shot Rine a sharp glare, but—

“Huh? Of course not. If you took my prank that way, I’m sorry. I should stop now.”

“Wait—!”

At Rine’s motion, as if she had no regrets, about to put strength into her hand, Yutia cried out urgently.

“Why? You told me to stop pranking you, so I’m just going to stop.”

At Rine’s still-unruffled attitude, Yutia replied with a smile that looked, to anyone, like she was holding back rage.

“What do you want?”

“What I want?”

“Yes. It feels like you have something in mind...”

“You’re suddenly going to give me what I want?”

“Yeah. I went a bit too far with the prank too, didn’t I?”

Yutia looked like she was saying, Let’s keep things pleasant, okay?

Seeing that, Rine gave a smile whose meaning was hard to read.

“Thirty days.”

“...Thirty days?”

“Let me be alone with my godfather for thirty days.”

“That isn’t something I decide.”

“Maybe you can’t decide it, but you can make it happen, can’t you? Ah, of course I’m not saying you should push everyone away so it’s literally just the two of us.”

At the demand Rine made, as if she’d seen through Yutia to some extent—

“......”

Yutia, who’d been silent, started the bargaining.

“Ten days.”

“Twenty-five.”

Rine answered immediately, refusing to be outdone.

“Twelve.”

“Twenty-three.”

“Fifteen.”

“Twenty.”

“Sixteen.”

“Nineteen.”

As if there was no need for pretense anymore, they tossed aside their fake smiles.

With eyes that gave off an icy chill, glaring at each other, Rine and Yutia only traded numbers.

“Sixteen.”

“Nineteen.”

“Sixteen.”

“Nineteen.”

Soon the situation solidified.

‘...Wh- what is this, even...’

Right around when Hidan, unable to follow this sudden negotiation at all, just stared blankly—

“Seventeen days. I won’t give you more than that.”

“...Fine.”

At Yutia’s acceptance, the magic orb that had been in Rine’s grasp until just a moment ago dropped to the floor.

Thud—

As if she’d been waiting, Yutia snatched it up at once.

Like she was wrapping up a truly precious treasure, she shoved the crystal orb into her embrace, and—

“It was a good deal, Yutia.”

“...Sure.”

Toward Rine, who folded her arms and smiled with her eyes—

Yutia forced a smile.

Once the battle of nerves between the two finally came to an end—

‘...I don’t know what’s what anymore...’

Hidan let out a relieved breath.

The night of the day Alon found a possibility of his own through Yutia’s small help.

Alon suddenly opened his eyes and realized his condition.

‘My memories came back.’

He was blank for a moment as he felt the memories pouring in in a torrent.

But only for a moment.

Alon, who’d been doing nothing but staring at the scene drawn before him, realized this place wasn’t reality.

‘A dream?’

A dream.

There wasn’t a better word to understand what Alon was seeing in a single phrase.

As if dozens of colorless pastels were repeatedly drawing something in an instant and then vanishing—

In that place, where everything else was painted in black and white—

[Hello.]

“......The former— no, you’re... Blue Eyes?”

He met Blue Eyes, wearing the form of the former Observer.

[Correct. Nice. Makes things faster.]

Blue Eyes answered as if satisfied.

To be honest, Alon recognizing it as Blue Eyes was, at most, a guess that happened to land.

Its shape was fluttering and scattering like smoke, to the point no one could really make it out properly.

The reason Alon could still guess its identity at all was—

because even in this colorless world, the blue eyes and black outfit were giving off a vivid light.

But whether Blue Eyes knew that or not, it spoke leisurely.

[So? Did you like the present?]

“...A present?”

[I dragged it out for you on purpose, didn’t I?]

“Was that you?”

[I can give you that much help.]

“...If that’s the case, it would’ve been nice if you’d given me a hint too.”

Even at Alon’s reproach, Blue Eyes laughed cheerfully.

[Sorry, that isn’t my role.]

“Not your role?”

[Anyway— when you wake up, go see that kid.]

“That kid?”

[Who was it? Th— Sironia? You know, that kid.]

It gave him information.

“Wait, what—”

[All right, then, we’re done here. See you again someday.]

As if it had no intention of answering Alon anymore.

The moment Blue Eyes waved lightly and turned its back—

“—!”

Alon could open his eyes properly.

“......”

A ceiling that was far too familiar now.

Blinking for a moment, Alon sat up and rubbed his face.

For a second, he wondered if it really had been a dream.

But he soon shook his head.

Because the memories were far too vivid to brush off like that.

‘...I’m pretty sure it said we’d meet again much later.’

From start to finish, it was doing whatever it wanted.

Alon briefly recalled that thought, then, as always, petted Blackie sleeping beside him a few times.

[Kyuu—?]

Blackie’s bright, wide eyes, woken from sleep, naturally turned toward Alon.

[Kyuu—!]

As if it’d noticed Alon had found his memories again—

unlike when he’d lost them, Blackie started rubbing up against him hard.

Alon petted Blackie, excited, then got out of bed.

It was time to deal with the work that had piled up while he’d lost his memories.

Even while he’d lost his memories, he’d still been diligently working up to now.

Even so, there was a problem he hadn’t managed to handle.

Things related to the Divine Land.

He’d taken care of the simple matters, but unfortunately, most of the problems coming out of the Divine Land weren’t light.

Of course, that didn’t mean they were bad problems, either.

“...So what was it you said the things I need to deal with right now are?”

“If I list the major ones first: the excessive population issue, housing, safety, supplies, disputes— ah, and there’s also the matter of declaring a kingdom.”

A low groan slipped out of Alon as he quietly listened to Penia’s explanation.

“There’s more work than I thought.”

“Well, it’s been left unattended for almost a month.”

“...Even if I’d done it a month ago, I think it’d be about the same.”

“That’s true.”

Penia acknowledged it neatly, then thought for a moment and spoke.

“But even from my perspective, I think it’s about time we start setting a direction.”

“A direction?”

“Yes. For example, up until now the policy has been to delegate full authority to Sili and have her manage it, but most of it has been ad hoc, right?”

“That’s true.”

“At this point it’s grown too big to run it that way anymore... Honestly, if you think about it coldly, it doesn’t even make sense that we’ve held out this long like this.”

At that, Alon nodded.

“Then the very first thing to decide is—”

“First, I think it would be good to decide whether we’re going to proclaim it as a kingdom. And after that, we can start putting a proper system in place—”

Penia finished by saying that once they did that, the next steps would naturally come into view.

Alon’s deliberation began.

‘...A kingdom proclamation.’

Of course, he had no intention of becoming king.

He could say that with absolute certainty.

Alon, regardless of good or evil, didn’t think he had the qualities to be king.

But the reason he was thinking about it was Divine blood.

The Divine blood he’d have to face going forward were beyond what Alon’s magic alone could handle.

To deal with them, he would need divine power.

In the end, from where things stood now, the Divine Land had become something Alon needed.

Whether he liked it or not.

That’s why, after thinking for a while, Alon—

“...Let’s do the proclamation.”

reached a conclusion.

“Mm. I didn’t say it because I was worried my personal opinion might slip in, but I also think that’s a good decision.”

Penia agreed immediately.

“Then first, the very first thing we have to solve is setting the proclamation date. Then we need to build the system. Then staffing, and...”

“Just hearing it already makes it go dark in front of my eyes.”

“Don’t worry too much. Sili will probably do well.”

“Sili...”

Alon thought of Sili.

The first thing that came to mind was a bright smile.

The next was what Sili had done up to now.

“...Yeah. If it’s Sili, it doesn’t seem like there’ll be a situation where nothing progresses even if we leave it to her.”

“If anything, we should worry about what we’ll do if she goes too far.”

“...That’s true.”

After admiring(?) Sili’s ability for a moment, the two of them started moving in earnest.

“First, I’ll briefly convey this to Sili.”

“Yeah. Ah, and ask you to prepare gifts too.”

“Prepare gifts?”

“No matter what, if we’re proclaiming a kingdom, we need to mind the neighboring countries’ feelings.”

Of course, Alon also knew the Divine Land’s underlying strength was absurdly strong.

And inside the Allied Kingdoms, they’d already been expecting a kingdom proclamation because of Sili.

Even so, actually proclaiming a kingdom was a different story.

From the Allied Kingdoms’ point of view, it was bound to not look very good.

So Alon judged that some preparation was needed.

“Okay.”

After more discussion, Penia left the room.

‘While we handle the Divine Land-related matters and prepare the proclamation, I should move to Rosario once.’

Alon made his own plan.

And that night—

[Gift?]

“Yeah.”

[Send a gift— huh...]

After hearing Alon’s message from Penia, Sili thought it over.

[Mm, okay. I’ll prepare the “gift.”]

She nodded with clear eyes.

However—

“...Just in case I’m saying this— you’re not thinking anything weird, right?”

[Huh? Of course not. This time, I understand his intent perfectly! I’ll prepare a gift to send to the kingdom, so don’t worry!]

At Sili’s answer, beaming brightly—

‘...I feel uneasy.’

Penia felt strangely uneasy.