The place Alon arrived at after following Lime was the guild office.

It was clearly the same place that had once been so horribly destroyed by the Divine blood’s attack that its original shape had been unrecognizable.

"...You restored it properly."

"Yes, it took quite a bit of work."

Lime stepped inside the office, which had somehow regained its original appearance.

Alon followed her upstairs and soon arrived at the office Seollang was using.

"..."

Seollang’s office was not very different from before.

Most of the things in use and the arrangement of the furniture were the same as they had been before.

Except...

"Ahem— I’m sorry I couldn’t explain earlier."

Alon had only been staring at one spot for a moment, but at Lime’s words, he turned his gaze away and naturally shook his head.

"It’s fine. More importantly, what exactly is going on?"

"Well—"

Lime fell silent for a moment as if sorting out her thoughts, then finally spoke.

"As I mentioned, bandits have been appearing near Colony lately, but those bandits aren’t normal."

"What do you mean, not normal?"

"I can’t be certain, but... I think they may have been influenced by Divine blood."

"...! Influenced by Divine blood?"

Penia cut in, reacting gravely.

But Lime paused for a moment before continuing.

"Yes. But it’s only a guess."

When Alon and Penia kept staring at her, she let out a breath.

"Right. It’s... the situation is a little complicated."

Once her full explanation was over, Alon organized the contents aloud.

"So what you’re saying is that lately, bandits have been appearing who are so strong it wouldn’t make sense unless they had been influenced by Divine blood?"

"That’s right. They’re not quite on the level of the monsters we saw last time, when Colony nearly got destroyed. But also—"

"They clearly have human forms?"

"...Yes. That’s why I said it’s hard to pin down."

Lime’s voice continued in a low tone.

"Most aberrations derived from Divine blood take on strange forms, but those ones were human."

"So recently, because of those bandits with abnormal power, Seollang and the other Baba Yaga have been going around dealing with them."

"Colony has only just started rebuilding, and if rumors like that start spreading again—"

Lime did not finish the sentence.

But the meaning came through clearly enough all the same, and while Alon’s party fell silent—

Creak-!

The office door opened.

"Hm?"

Seollang walked in.

She looked momentarily confused when she saw everyone gathered there.

But then her eyes widened the instant she spotted Alon.

"Master!"

With a bright, sunny face, she ran straight at Alon.

Cling-!

Seollang threw herself right into the arms of the still-seated Alon.

Her wagging tail and her usual smile filled Alon’s view.

"Seollang, have you been well?"

"Yep! How about you, Master?"

Alon stroked her head as she looked up at him, smiling as brightly as ever.

The Seollang he saw again after so long looked no different from the one he had always known.

####

After Seollang’s sudden arrival and their greetings, Alon heard a more detailed explanation directly from her.

"I kept one alive and questioned it to figure out where their base was, but it never opened its mouth all the way until it died. No, more accurately—"

"It felt like it just couldn’t speak."

"...Couldn’t speak?"

"Yeah. Like a doll."

Seollang soon tilted her head with a small hum.

"It definitely looked human, and from the way its eyes moved around, it seemed like it was thinking too, but it couldn’t talk."

"...Hmm—"

"That’s odd."

"But in the end, you still managed to find their base?"

"That’s right!"

Even so, Seollang had ultimately managed to locate their base.

"...Then is the bandit problem solved?"

"No, not yet. I got a sense of where the base is and found it that way, but I couldn’t go all the way there and come back."

"Why not?"

"One of the ones who went with me started feeling pretty bad."

"Ah."

"So! I was going to drop that one off and head back out again, and then Master was here right on time!"

Her beaming smile once more spread all across her face.

As if reflecting her mood, her tail swayed without stopping for a while.

"But why did you come to Colony, Master?"

Only now apparently curious, Seollang asked the question.

Alon explained to Lime and Seollang why he had come to Colony, and after listening quietly for a while, Seollang spoke.

"Then there’s a fragment around here that those Divine blood are looking for?"

"According to the information, yes."

"Then I’ll help too!"

Without a second thought, Seollang immediately shot her hand into the air.

Alon watched her for a moment before speaking.

"Thank you."

"It’s nothing! Helping Master is my job!"

"But even so, we can’t put dealing with the bandits on the back burner. We’ll take care of that first."

At that, Seollang nodded as if she understood.

And just like that, the first thing Alon’s party would do after arriving in Colony was decided.

That night—

"Brother!"

"It’s been a while."

Alon met Karsemm, who had come to see him in the middle of the night.

"If you had sent word before coming, I would’ve gone out to greet you at once...! My apologies."

"There was no need for that. I’m the one who came without warning."

As Karsemm bowed his head, Alon lightly waved him off and asked,

"By the way... it’s the middle of the night. Is it alright for you to be moving around alone like this?"

"If you’re worried about me, then thank you, but it’s alright. At least inside this city, I have enough strength to protect myself."

Karsemm laughed heartily.

"Is that so?"

"Yes. And actually, even when you aren’t here, Brother, I come and go to this place often at night."

"I see."

...Was there some reason the king of Colony had to visit this place at night, specifically?

The question occurred to Alon, but since it was not important right now, he simply nodded for the moment.

After they exchanged brief pleasantries, Alon brought up something he had been intending to ask Karsemm anyway.

"May I ask you one thing?"

"Ah, yes! If it’s something I can answer, I’ll tell you everything."

Karsemm nodded.

"Did you find the item?"

"The item...?"

"At the Seeker’s tower, didn’t it distribute power to the kings?"

"Ah."

Only then, after Alon elaborated, did Karsemm seem to understand what he meant, and he nodded again.

"Yes. I found the item too, and I did obtain an ability."

"...If you don’t mind, may I ask what kind of ability you obtained?"

It was a very cautious question.

If Karsemm really had gained an ability, then asking about it could honestly be considered rude.

No matter how casually Karsemm treated Alon, the two of them were still kings who each ruled their own country.

...Of course, Alon did somewhat lack that sort of sensitivity.

In any case, Alon had thought it could not be helped even if Karsemm refused to answer, but—

"Yes, of course you may!"

Contrary to expectations, Karsemm readily accepted the request.

####

Around that same time, Hidan, one of Blue Night’s executives, had been living through an extremely busy routine lately.

Ever since making that fatal(?) mistake last time and somehow receiving Red Moon’s forgiveness,

Hidan had been steadily researching what kind of hairstyle the Great Moon preferred.

That was not Hidan’s only responsibility, either.

Part of Hidan’s job was also appropriately mediating the various incidents taking place in the underworld within Blue Moon’s sphere of influence.

And managing Blue Moon’s members as a whole was also Hidan’s responsibility.

Because of that, things had improved somewhat after the Great Moon entered the desert, but there was still plenty of work piled up, and Hidan was exhausted.

Just as Blue Moon’s hideout was filling up with Hidan’s sighs—

"You look absolutely dead inside."

"...Yuna."

Yuna, one of Blue Moon’s executives, had come by.

"I’ve been tired lately."

"Well, considering what you’re in charge of, that makes sense. Though honestly, things on my side have been exhausting lately too—"

Even as she agreed that of course Hidan was having a rough time, Yuna let the end of her sentence trail off.

"Something happen?"

"Ah, there’s just been a lot of information we’ve had to gather lately."

"...That much?"

"Well— we are working together with the information guild, but even taking that into account, there’s still a lot of information we have to gather separately. You know how it is, right? Things haven’t been easy since the Divine blood showed up."

"...That’s true."

Just as she said, after the Divine blood descended, all kinds of things had been happening behind the scenes in the Allied Kingdoms, even if they were not visible on the surface.

New organizations were springing up one after another.

Religions that had hidden themselves in preparation for the world’s end were reappearing.

And among them, even aberrations created by actual Divine blood had started showing up, turning things into a complete mess practically every other day.

Even though Divine Land, created by the Great Moon, was doing its best.

"You’ve had it rough too."

"Well... yeah."

Yuna shrugged at Hidan’s attempt at comfort and moved as she usually did.

Soon, she picked up a sheet of report paper [N O V E L I G H T] lying in one corner of the hideout and unfolded it to read.

"A report?"

"Yeah. Obviously. What else would it b—"

But then Yuna’s voice suddenly cut off.

"What is it?"

Hidan asked in confusion, but Yuna stayed silent, staring at the paper for a while before finally saying,

"...Hidan."

"Speak."

"...Didn’t you say the Moons would be holding a meeting again for the first time in a while?"

"That’s right...?"

"...Could you leave me out of the meeting this time?"

She said it calmly.

And before the even more bewildered Hidan could say anything—

Yuna handed over the paper she had been reading.

"?"

Caught off guard, Hidan took the paper and read through it.

The contents themselves were nothing all that special.

It was, quite literally, just a report listing collected information.

That only made Yuna’s behavior more puzzling to him—

"...Ah."

Then he let out a low sigh.

"...You saw it?"

"...Yeah."

He had seen it, alright.

The line written at the very bottom of the report.

‘Penia Crysinne, vice tower master of the Blue Tower, officially announced at the Central Mage Tower conference that she and the Great Moon are in a special relationship.’

"...Hidan."

"What."

"You know, the Blue Tower’s vice tower master."

"Yeah."

Yuna swallowed hard, her mouth apparently dry, and said,

"...Do you think she has ten lives or something?"

Hidan closed his mouth.

...Because he had been thinking the exact same thing.

"Yuna."

"Ah, sorry, I suddenly have something to take care of, so I’m gonna go."

"No, wait—"

"Please handle the report for me! It’d be weird for me to attend a meeting that’s being held for the first time in a while anyway!"

"Wait—!!"

Before Hidan’s shout could even finish, Yuna disappeared on the spot.

"..."

And so, left alone in the end, Hidan—

"...Ah."

Squeezed his eyes shut.

There was only one thought in his head.

Ah, I want to go home.