Inside one of the largest rooms, Aslan and the girls gathered for dinner. Mitsuki was there as well for the simple reason that Jeanne had dragged him there after Azel left.

Since the beds had been dismantled by Ellegaard because they would be leaving soon, everyone had to sleep once again in their respective sleeping bags inside the largest room, gathered around a campfire.

The ceiling was broken, and through it, the faint moonlight of a starry night could be seen. Outside, the remaining ash beasts crawled together; some repeated habits they had before the catastrophe, while others simply acted like animals without leashes.

Returning to the group, the four of them ate soup from their bowls while staring at the firelight.

"Well, that finishes our inspection of Holylight. There wasn’t a single trace of the curse left. Not even the statues of the people remained. Everything vanished forever, and nobody knows how," Jeanne said.

Ellegaard looked at Mitsuki suspiciously.

"Did you do the same thing there that you did with the curse in this kingdom?"

"Well... I don’t know. I don’t remember anything that happened. I appeared in this world, walked toward the capital walls that were there, and when I stayed overnight in a house, the ash statues attacked me. I ran like never before until I reached the castle and passed out. The next day, I explored the castle and... encountered that black knight who destroyed me with a single strike of his sword. After that, I don’t remember anything until I met all of you."

Jeanne stirred the firewood with the tip of her sword.

"It must’ve been horrible being alone back then. Considering how weak you used to be, you had no chance of defending yourself against a specter of that caliber."

"Yeah... I don’t even know how I killed him, since many of his belongings became mine. These clothes, the shotgun, the sword... everything."

And whenever he killed someone with a title, their memories would begin appearing in his dreams. In fact, he still hadn’t seen Cinderella’s entire story.

He knew that sooner or later, the story would complete itself inside his mind, but why hadn’t that black knight’s story appeared in his dreams yet? There had to be some factor deciding what was shown and what wasn’t.

Perhaps something that kept the Mystery of Ash as what it truly was, a mystery.

"Could it have been the so-called Nameless One?" Ellegaard murmured.

Aslan served himself more soup from the cauldron and spoke.

"No matter how many years pass, no one has managed to discover who the Unnameable truly is. What the Oracles said about the prophecy was far too ambiguous, because even they did not know who it referred to."

"But the moment they saw the future, they understood we were doomed," Ellegaard added.

That made Mitsuki reflect. He remained silent while staring at the fire, which made both Ellegaard and Jeanne uncomfortable, because they were practically calling Mitsuki a monster.

Aslan cleared his throat.

"However, we cannot dwell on something that has not happened yet. We are the owners of our own destiny, so only we can decide what happens and what does not. Don’t you think the same, young Mitsuki?"

Mitsuki nodded.

"Yes. Of course."

"Anyway. We’d better go to sleep," Ellegaard interrupted, avoiding what she had said earlier. "I’ve already finished investigating everything there was in this kingdom. There are no more clues regarding the Mystery of Cinder. So tomorrow we will depart and return to Luxar."

Jeanne looked at Mitsuki after hearing the elf. This princess could be rather capricious at times, because she knew perfectly well how Ellegaard would react tomorrow once Monar and the others boarded the carriage.

’If I could still feel anything, I’d say tomorrow is going to be exhausting.’

He set the bowl aside, slipped into his sleeping bag, and, far away from everyone else, closed his eyes. It was time to rest.

***

It felt like déjà vu.

Once again, just like the other times, he found himself dreaming about the past of his victim.

Sinking into the black mud, the voices, sensations, and memories fused with his mind.

It was the throne room of the King of Axorhibis. Golden and blue banners decorated the white walls of the vast and beautiful protected hall. Dozens of knights in shining, spotless armor stood along the sides, each elegantly holding their preferred weapon; swords.

Beside the throne stood little Cinderella, slightly nervous because today, the King of Holylight and his second son would finally appear before the throne of the King of Axorhibis.

"How much longer?" the princess asked her mother, who stood beside her.

The woman smiled warmly.

"Be patient, Guinevere."

"But I want to leave already, Mom. This is so boring."

"What a shame, because in the future you’ll have to do these kinds of things very often."

Cinderella complained. She stared at the floor, wishing the earth would swallow her whole, but that wish was never fulfilled.

Rather than being here to witness a meeting between two old men, she wanted to return to the training grounds and continue learning under one of the kingdom’s strongest knights, Percival. Or visit the sorceress Minerva’s laboratory and continue studying the secrets of crystallization, though her constant mistakes had already caused her to fail many times.

Even her brown hair was beginning to turn ash-colored because of her mediocrity with magic.

Suddenly, cheers echoed from the distance.

It was time.

The king stood up, and all the knights turned their attention toward the door to welcome His Majesty, King Uther of Holylight.

At the other end of the great hall, a tall man with a stern gaze appeared. He had a short yellowish-ash beard as well as blond-yellow hair. His silver crown gleamed atop his head, and his blue robes made him look like the ultimate authority of a kingdom.

The man was accompanied by two knights wearing exaggerated armor. They looked more like magical robots than actual knights. One carried a jousting lance as though it were a cane, while the other had a massive claymore, or two-handed sword, strapped to his back with a strange metallic mechanism shaped like two dragon claws attached to the armor.

The man walked calmly, drawing everyone’s attention.

Cinderella felt somewhat intimidated, but soon all those emotions froze, just like time itself, because her eyes met those of a boy walking beside the king with a cold and determined expression.