Now the room had been dyed red by the moonlight.

Silence settled over everything.

Yutia looked at the Seeker without a word.

Her red lips parted.

“I came because there was something I wanted to discuss with you for a moment.”

A natural smile soon settled over her expressionless mouth.

At the sight, the Seeker let out a small sigh.

...At least as far as he knew, that smile must not disappear from that thing.

If it was truly ‘one who had crossed over,’ then all the more so.

“In that case, I’d appreciate it if you’d release this first.”

“Oh my—my mistake.”

Yutia played it off as though she had forgotten.

The Seeker’s body regained its freedom.

Only then did he turn away from the window where he had been looking out at the red moon, and when he faced forward, a girl entered his view.

At some point, she was already seated in the chair across from him.

Tick—

There was clearly no clock.

So it should have been a sound that could not be heard.

But he had only a brief moment to register the sharp sound ringing in his ears before—

“Why did you do it?”

Yutia’s question came flying at him.

The smile at her lips remained, but her face was endlessly cold.

“...What exactly are you talking about?”

“I think you know very well what I’m asking.”

At the questioning that followed, the Seeker fell silent for a moment before replying.

“...If this is about the Star Eater, then naturally, I had no particular ulterior motive. I only told him what needed to be told at this point in time.”

“...And what exactly does ‘at this point in time’ mean?”

“I judged that it would be necessary for him now.”

“And not your own arbitrary desire to stop the destruction as easily as possible?”

“I can’t say that intent played no part in it at all, but it is something he truly needs. You know that too, don’t you? Now that Divine blood has descended, things won’t return to how they were before.”

“...”

“Even if not now, there won’t be none like you later on. No, there’s already one person in this tower I suspect. And this matter I’ve set in motion now as well—”

“Enough.”

Yutia cut him off.

The Seeker closed his mouth without resistance.

Yutia looked into his eyes.

As though watching something amusing.

And yet her gaze was mixed with scrutiny.

How much silence passed?

“Hm.”

Yutia tilted her head.

“I roughly understand. For his sake as well, and for the sake of your mission, you judged that way—is that it?”

“That’s right. To begin with, my purpose has always been one thing, then and now.”

“To stop the destruction of the continent?”

The Seeker did not answer Yutia’s question.

Not because he was deliberately ignoring it.

They both simply already knew what the answer would be.

“...But even so, no matter how I look at it, this seems excessive.”

“It may be difficult. But you’ll be following him, won’t you?”

“You anticipated even that?”

“Yes. Of course, even if you go with him, in the end this is still... a problem he himself must solve.”

At last, as though she had heard everything she needed to hear, Yutia nodded.

“Then I’ll take it that way.”

The moment Yutia’s voice rang out again, the red world slowly began to crumble.

The blood-colored moon regained its original blue.

And when at last the world returned to normal, the Seeker murmured,

“...I’m glad we were able to speak reasonably.”

“Are you?”

“Yes. If not, I would have been forced to use force.”

Yutia’s steps stopped.

“Oh my, did you judge that if you used force, you’d be able to get out?”

“...If it were you before crossing over, it would be impossible. But now, it should be possible.”

Saying that, the Seeker watched the girl’s back.

“Because the you now is clearly weaker than before.”

She had been heading for the door, but she turned only her head and looked back at the Seeker.

Under her smiling eyes, the smile gathered at her lips glimmered faintly.

“Don’t worry too much.”

“...”

“I plan to reclaim it soon.”

Yutia started walking again and silently took hold of the doorknob.

The Seeker, lost in thought, suddenly looked startled as though something had just occurred to him, and at that moment—

“Ah, right.”

Yutia’s hand, which had been about to turn the knob, stopped short.

“There was one more thing I meant to tell you, but I didn’t.”

“...What is it?”

Without looking at the Seeker, Yutia opened the door the rest of the way and said,

“If your goal is to stop the destruction, then I think you need to pay a little more attention.”

“What...?”

“Even if you stop all the Divine blood, if he is not still there at the end—”

the world will be destroyed anyway.

Leaving behind those final quiet words, she vanished outside like something scattering apart.

For a while, the Seeker stared blankly at the place where Yutia had disappeared.

“...”

Quietly, he found himself wondering about one thing.

The expression Yutia had used.

‘...Reclaim it?’

The Seeker frowned.

He knew that she was someone who had crossed over.

But her power was not the kind of thing she could simply recover just because she wanted to.

At least, that was how the Seeker understood it.

To begin with, her power was—

“!”

As the thought reached that point, the Seeker’s eyes widened.

Because one possibility had suddenly come to mind.

‘If that were possible—’

Without realizing it, the Seeker let out a hollow laugh.

“...Then it really might be possible.”

Murmuring that, the Seeker recalled the temple in the west at the edge of this continent.

A temple where perhaps, besides the Star Eater, there might be someone else who could also take something away from it.

And the next day—

“Then let’s go.”

“Yes.”

“...Yeees...”

“Let’s.”

Alon’s group departed for the west.

####

Yutia had been added to the party’s journey, but nothing much had changed.

If there was any change at all, it was probably this:

“Ahem—Lord Alon, so, about this—”

For some reason Penia had started acting a little awkward, and Basiliora and Blackie—who had rolled around fighting whenever they got the chance—no longer fully showed themselves.

Other than that minor issue, nothing much happened, so Alon’s party traveled in peace.

However—

“...”

The longer the journey went on, the more Alon’s worries gradually increased.

It was because of the matter of Rhythm.

‘...A law, a law.’

Aside from simple magic research, what Alon had been occupied with lately was one thing:

what kind of law he should establish once he reached the second stage.

“...”

At this point, Alon had already resolved a certain degree of {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} risk through Reverse Heavens.

What he needed now was to go beyond merely resolving risk and take one step farther.

But no matter how deeply he thought, no particularly convincing idea came to mind.

It was not because Alon’s magic was close to complete.

His magic still had many shortcomings.

However, those were problems that had to be solved through magic alone, while this was an entirely different matter. And so Alon continued spending his time in thought.

And after still more time had passed—

“Lord Alon.”

“What is it?”

“We’ve reached the border.”

“The border... didn’t we pass one already?”

Alon recalled what he had seen a few days ago.

Unlike the border of the Allied Kingdoms, the Empire’s border had been completely empty, as if saying there was no need to guard something like this at all.

“Ah, it seems this is the border of the Eastern Empire.”

“...There’s another border?”

“Yes. Look.”

Alon cast his gaze slightly outside the carriage. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Ahead of them, he saw a massive wall.

A wall just as broad as the one he had seen at the last border.

“...So they built another one.”

“Yes. It seems it was made after the Empire split. Now that I think about it, I feel like I heard something about it somewhere too.”

“...I hadn’t thought of that.”

Alon let out a small sigh.

Of course, even before, he had briefly thought something was off, but that border had been completely empty, so they had crossed it easily.

He just had not expected they would go so far as to build another border entirely like this.

“Hm... what do we do about this...?”

“Exactly... It feels like the Eastern Empire side might be a little difficult.”

“...Mm...”

Evan, Penia, and Yutia all fell into thought in their own ways.

After thinking it over for a moment, Alon made a decision.

“For now, let’s go.”

To begin with, they could hardly turn back after coming this far.

Before reaching the border, the party held a short strategy meeting.

“Well, in times like this, there is one tried-and-true straightforward method built on faith and trust.”

“What is it?”

“This.”

Evan made a circle with his fingers.

“But if that fails, we won’t just be unable to get in—we might end up thrown in prison.”

“Ahem. Would it really go that far?”

“To begin with, the fact that we aren’t imperial citizens already seems like it would make things difficult... How about this instead?”

“What is it?”

“First, we reveal who we are, then say we came because we have something to convey to the Eastern Empire’s little brat— I mean, princess—regarding what happened this time.”

“And after that?”

“First we get inside, then we cut across the Eastern Empire and head for the Western Empire.”

“...And how are you planning to deal with the fallout after that?”

“Well, that...”

Ahem—Penia cleared her throat and glanced elsewhere.

While one useless plan after another poured out, the carriage had already drawn close to the gates at the border wall.

Anxiety showed plainly on everyone’s faces.

Then—

“Don’t worry too much, Teacher.”

“...Yutia?”

Yutia stepped forward.

“Do you have some kind of method?”

“It’s not a certain method, but I am under the guidance of the Goddess Sironia. And there are also those in the Empire who serve the Goddess Sironia, you know?”

“Oh.”

The sound escaped Alon without him realizing it.

Because if what she said was true, he judged that things really might become a little easier.

She was, after all, the cardinal of Rosario.

‘...But didn’t the Empire worship a different god?’

The question crossed Alon’s mind for only a brief moment.

“Identify yourselves!”

The instant they reached the gate, a soldier’s shout dropped from atop the wall as though he had been waiting for them.

“...Let’s get down first.”

“Yes.”

Alon and Yutia stepped down from the carriage and looked up at the wall.

There, high enough to make his neck ache from looking up, stood a man whose presence was ominous at a glance.

‘...Judging by the prayer in him, at minimum a Master Knight. Perhaps beyond that.’

Based on the faint magic flowing from the man’s body, Alon judged his level.

“Greetings. I am Yutia Bloodia, a servant who serves the great Goddess Sironia.”

Meanwhile, Yutia calmly stepped forward.

The man, who had been looking down below as if he had no interest whatsoever in her greeting—

“...?”

—soon made a slightly strange expression, then—

“!”

—as if he had suddenly realized something, vanished from atop the wall like a ghost.

Crrrrrrrk—!!!

At the same time, the gate began to open.

“...Wow, so the Goddess Sironia carries weight even in the Empire.”

“Apparently so.”

While Evan and Penia exchanged a few words behind them—

“Greetings.”

—the man who had been atop the wall came running up in a hurry.

Then, directly—

“I failed to recognize you!”

““?””

—he bowed to Alon.

The entire group stared in bewilderment.

“...What?”

“Could it be... that you are His Majesty Palatio Alon, King of Palantia?”

At Alon’s question, the man raised his head and spoke carefully.

“That’s right.”

As soon as Alon confirmed it, the man nodded vigorously.

“I heard the news. You may pass.”

He readily ushered them through.

“...Why?”

Alon tilted his head, unable to understand, and the man smiled with visible satisfaction, as if congratulating himself on his excellent social instincts.

“Aren’t you the man who’s about to become Her Highness’s husband?”

“...What?”

“...?”

The smile vanished from Yutia’s face.

...And from Penia’s as well, where she stood beside Evan.