“I think this about wraps up the rough organization.”

“I see.”

Penia stared at the documents with hollow eyes.

Alon rolled his stiff neck.

For nearly a full week, Alon, Penia, and Evan had spent almost all their time establishing a system for the Divine Land.

“Whew— that was tiring.”

Evan said with a light sigh.

At that, Penia made an incredulous face.

“You have no reason to be tired, do you?”

“? What do you mean? I was right here for a week, thinking hard with you.”

“What’s the point of thinking if you didn’t come up with anything useful?”

“You know that in things like this, just putting ideas out there helps, right?”

“How does that help?”

“Because even if I hadn’t said it, someone else would’ve.”

“I don’t think anyone would’ve.”

“Tsk tsk— this is why someone who’s never had a real social life—”

At Penia’s provocation, Evan clicked his tongue openly and shook his head.

Alon leaned back against the chair and watched the two of them leisurely.

“Hah? No matter how I think about it, I feel like I understand social life better than you.”

“You? Better than me?”

“You must keep forgetting because I’m here, but I’m the deputy tower master of the Blue Mage Tower!?”

“Being deputy tower master doesn’t mean you’re good at social life. People who only ever strike down from the top aren’t called socially adept. You don’t even have friends, do you?”

“I do!?”

“Who?”

Answering even more explosively than before, Penia forced a smile, looking oddly scratched the wrong way.

“Don’t be shocked when you hear this! My friend is of far higher quality than any friend you have!”

“So who?”

“The Princess of Raksas!”

“A princess?”

“Yes! She’s my magic cohort.”

Evan nodded with an impressed “Oh—”.

Penia gave a prim snort.

...For a moment Alon wondered why that counted as something to be proud of.

“And?”

“...What?”

“And who else?”

At Evan’s follow-up question—no, attack—

Penia, who’d been smiling confidently until just now, gradually went blank.

“Uh— well, that is—”

She muttered, rolling her eyes around.

Evan froze blankly along with her.

But Penia still couldn’t say anything, her eyes darting around—

and the moment Alon realized why Penia had been so proud of that princess friend she’d mentioned earlier, the room fell solemn.

“A- anyway... you know. That thing.”

“Don’t change the subject!!!”

The instant Evan belatedly raised his finger and spoke, Penia shouted right back.

As the argument naturally began again, Basiliora, sitting inside the wine glass, suddenly spoke.

[Hmph. I truly don’t understand devoting this much time just to manage the Divine Land.]

“Then how should it be managed?”

[Isn’t it simple? Fear.]

Basiliora said it casually.

Alon shook his head, newly recalling that Basiliora had once been an object of faith in place of lightning-struck Kalannon.

Of course, as Basiliora said, one could gather faith through fear.

Alon himself knew of beings in the past who had done exactly that.

But Alon had no desire to do so.

To begin with, that method wasn’t what he wanted.

More than anything, unless one intended to conquer this entire continent, gathering faith through fear was close to the approach of a novice—

he understood that much.

“Not a very good idea.”

So he answered.

[Hmph— that’s just because your heart is unnecessarily kind.]

Basiliora grumbled.

There was trust in Alon mixed into that voice.

Watching them, now skilled at bickering—almost warmly, even—Alon rose from his seat.

The Divine Land matters were all finished, so it was time to go to Rosario.

“Kyaaaah—!! I’m going to rip out all your hair!”

“Your temper’s the only filthy thing—!!”

...First he had to stop Penia and Evan, though.

Alon let out a faint sigh, feeling the daily life that, for now, remained peaceful as ever.

...It was winter.

Alon moved the very next day.

“Mm— there’s still a lot to do.”

The winter scenery outside the window, all leaves fallen, only bare branches remaining.

Watching it, Alon reacted to Penia’s words.

“To do?”

“Yes. You said we had to go to Rosario, so we wrapped up only the urgent issues, but there’s still a lot left.”

“Mm—”

Alon nodded.

Certainly, as she said, they’d handled a fair amount of the Divine Land work.

But beyond that, there was much more to pay attention to.

If they were to proclaim a kingdom, they even had to consider the proclamation wording itself.

And that wasn’t all.

Even if the Divine Land had many knights, having troops alone didn’t make a kingdom.

What a kingdom needed was people—citizens.

Without citizens, you couldn’t form a kingdom in the first place.

‘Of course, I’ve already asked Sili about that part...’

Sili had created countless believers alone up to now.

Even so, gathering a population on the scale of a kingdom’s citizenry would be impossible.

...It should be impossible, right?

...Mm, yes. It must be impossible.

Alon stopped that thought from running too far ahead and spoke.

“There is a lot to handle besides the Divine Land.”

“Yes. There’s magic, and you also have to stop by the Mage Tower, right? And Teria too. And shouldn’t you visit Fildagreen once as well?”

That was certainly true.

There were «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» many places to visit, not just problems to solve.

‘I’ll probably have to move through them all at once soon.’

He reached that conclusion in his head when—

“Ah, and you remember, right?”

“Remember what?”

“The one called the Foot that Runs Through the Past— so, Kylrus? You need to meet them too.”

“That’s right.”

Alon let out a low exclamation.

Come to think of it, he’d thought he should go see right after regaining his memories, but he hadn’t been able to because of the backlog of Divine Land work.

Strike while the iron is hot.

Since it had come to mind, he entered his inner world to use the Foot that Runs Through the Past and meet Kylrus—

“Long time no see.”

—and encountered Kylrus greeting him.

But Alon couldn’t receive that greeting as usual.

Because—

“...What is this place?”

The inner world he’d entered after so long was completely different from the scenery he’d known before.

No— it wasn’t even something you could call scenery.

Where he stood, there was nothing. Only pitch-blackness.

And yet it wasn’t an abyssal darkness where no light entered.

The surroundings were clearly dark, but Kylrus’s figure was sharply visible.

In that contradictory situation, Alon asked, and Kylrus replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

“You’re stating the obvious.”

“...This is my inner world?”

“Yes.”

“Can an inner world change?”

Kylrus shook his head.

“Normally, it doesn’t change without an extremely large emotional shift or trauma.”

“...Then the reason my inner world changed is—”

“That you experienced an emotional shift or trauma.”

He added, “Though what kind of trauma, I can’t say.”

Looking around at the surroundings that had turned abyss-like, he asked,

“So what happened?”

At that, Alon calmly laid out everything that had happened so far.

Elivan becoming the Sin of Wrath.

The Bearer.

What it had said.

And even the meeting with Blue Eyes afterward.

After he’d spent quite a long time explaining everything that had happened, Kylrus, who’d been listening intently, let out—

“...Ha.”

—a dry laugh.

“What is it?”

“After hearing your whole story, my own situation feels ridiculous.”

At Kylrus’s reaction, Alon fell silent.

Thinking about it, it wasn’t strange for him to feel that way.

Wasn’t he the mage who had tried to become a god even as a goblin to stop the sins?

What Alon had told him was enough to disturb his state of mind in any sense.

As Alon quietly watched him, Kylrus took a breath.

“Don’t look at me like that. I have no intention of being swayed by things already finished. Well— it is very regrettable I couldn’t take revenge personally, though.”

“...I see.”

“Anyway, back to the point. Hearing your story, I can see how your mindset could change in many ways. But I still don’t understand why this mental image looks like this.”

After sweeping his gaze once across the pitch-black darkness, Kylrus looked steadily at Alon with a somewhat strange expression.

“...From the path you described and from what I see now, it doesn’t look like your thoughts are rushing to extremes.”

“So in the end, you don’t know why my inner world changed like this.”

“That’s right. If I had to guess, perhaps it’s because you became that Divine blood thing. Though that’s probably a deduction you’ve already made yourself.”

Kylrus shifted his gaze slightly.

“Anyway, until this mental world returns to something like before, training will be impossible.”

“Why?”

“Isn’t it obvious? In this altered inner world, you can’t use power at all.”

“...Can’t use it?”

Alon felt puzzled for a moment and tried to use power.

“Huh?”

Just as Kylrus said, magic didn’t unfold.

“Hm— I thought you might manage it, but I suppose not.”

Kylrus shrugged as he watched Alon, whose gesture showed surprise despite his expressionless face.

“Anyway, until this inner world returns to something like before, we’ll stop training.”

With that, he ended the discussion.

While Alon, after meeting Kylrus, was heading toward Rosario—

in the Divine Land—

“Mm— isn’t this going to be pretty difficult?”

A total of three figures were having a serious discussion in an office.

“I’d say so too.”

The first to speak had been Ryang-a.

The one who replied was Deus, and—

“I agree.”

—the one who added agreement was Historia, sitting expressionlessly.

The reason they had gathered was—

the directive that had come down from Marquis Palatio this time.

More precisely, it was more like a suggestion: “If this is possible, could you try it?”

“But still, we can’t just do nothing, right?”

“That’s true—”

“I agree. It is the Marquis’s words.”

The three wore resolute expressions.

To them, the Marquis’s words were like directives that absolutely had to be followed.

So they were filled with motivation.

...Of course, separate from that, they’d run into a wall.

“...How do we gather citizens?”

For these three, devising a way to gather citizens was extremely difficult.

No— if you brought anyone else here, they’d fall silent at this topic too.

Naturally.

There was nothing, yet they suddenly had to gather a crowd that could be called “citizens.”

“There is a way.”

“!? There really is?”

“Yes.”

“What is it?”

“Disarm the soldiers and turn them into citizens.”

“...We already tried that and failed.”

“Ah.”

So, just as they were exchanging what could be called their own opinions—

“You’re all here.”

Sili, who had moved outside the Divine Land a few days ago briefly to handle some matters, entered.

“Sili, you’re back. There weren’t any problems?”

“Yes, Brother. I just had some personal things to do while preparing the ‘gift.’”

“Is the preparation finished?”

“No. I still have to make it, so it’ll take time, but I think I can easily make it before the proclamation day. More importantly— why are you all gathered?”

At that, Deus naturally conveyed to her the content handed down from Alon.

After listening for a while, Sili said—

“Mm— that’s simple?”

far too lightly.

“Simple?”

“Yes. I don’t think it’ll be difficult.”

“...Gathering that many citizens?”

“Yes.”

At Deus and Ryang-a’s questioning, Sili smiled brightly.

At that—

“....”

“....”

Ryang-a and Deus exchanged somewhat uneasy looks.

They already knew.

That Sili could commit astonishingly bizarre acts with a perfectly cheerful smile.

“Sili.”

“Yes, Brother—”

“You’re not planning to use any coercive methods, are you?”

Deus asked just in case.

At that, Sili’s smile deepened even more.

“Oh my, of course not. He wouldn’t like it at all if coercive methods were used— why would I ever use such a method?”

“Ahem— yes, of course.”

“Yes, it’s not coercive.”

“Mm—”

“It’s not coercive.”

““......””

Deus and Ryang-a looked at each other, feeling a strange unease.

“?”

Only Historia watched their silent exchange with a puzzled expression.