Levanfell was in need of treatment, but fortunately, his injuries were not lifethreatening or serious enough for me to intervene.

When Levanfell woke up, I decided to question him about the details and determine whether to punish him along with the remnants.

There was nothing to decide yet.

(This is a time separator.)

A whole day passed, and night arrived.

As always, no matter how hard one tries, darkness is bound to come. But because there is darkness, light can shine.

Because there is darkness to defeat, light can truly shine its worth.

Clint thought of his daughter and personally took care of the children all day. At first, the children were afraid of Clint, but now they liked him the most.

Levanfell and Jaerim were in charge of investigating the remnants. Since the messenger from the palace had not yet arrived, they had to be more careful.

“Clint.”

After treating Levanfell, I went to find Clint. And Clint told me everything about the last moments of Lady Tenen, without missing a single detail.

How proud he was of his daughter Tenen, who resembled her father. How great she was.

“……My daughter was always like that. She thought of others before herself. I, and my wife, taught her that way.”

“…….”

“Actually, when I first heard about the necklace, I regretted it terribly. I should have just told my daughter to be selfish. Not to help anyone, to think only of herself. I regretted that too.”

“Clint…….”

“But I am proud of the fact that my daughter did not hesitate to help others. My daughter did nothing wrong. It was not my daughter’s fault. What is evil, and what needs to be killed…….”

Clint’s black eyes darkened.

“The bastards who made this world where you have to be selfish to survive.”

“……The children?”

“They are all asleep. Fortunately, none of these children have been experimented on, so they can be sent back.”

“Did you check where they all came from?”

So, naturally, Clint was in charge of investigating the children. If the atmosphere was too formal and stiff, the children would be scared, and no answers would come out.

“Yes. Two of them were not from the Leonhardt Empire. They were children sold from another kingdom.”

“That means…….”

“Yes. Probably, this largescale experiment facility is not just in our empire.”

Clint looked at the village that looked like a hell filled with coffins.

“Geneleva’s hand has reached out everywhere on the continent while we carelessly forgot. To the weak and protected children.”

“…….”

“It’s a tragedy we’ve created out of our complacency.”

“We can’t say it’s in every continent, but at least in our empire, the same thing should never happen again.”

“Yes. ……Some of the children were sold by their parents to pay off gambling debts, so if we send them back to their parents, the same thing might happen again.”

I nodded slowly. Surely some children had been separated from their parents unavoidably, but not all of them.

Not all parents are kind protectors, a strong fence for their children.

“Let’s find a place where the children can rest together.”

“Yes.”

I looked at the unusually close moon in the sky. To some, that moon would be a comfort, and to others, it would seem cold and cruel.

“……Have the children seen Geneleva?”

I exchanged glances with Clint. He slowly nodded his head.

“Yes.”

Geneleva had been here.

“I showed them the portrait from the wanted poster. All the children said they had seen the alchemist.”

“……Did you check when?”

“The last time they saw her was quite a long time ago.”

“Was Geneleva always involved in the experiments?”

“She wasn’t always here, they said. Sometimes she came to participate in the experiments, and some children heard her talking.”

“Still…….”

“And on the days when the alchemist participated in the experiment, the child who was experimented on died immediately. Probably…….”

Clint chose his words carefully.

“She seems to be trying to find a new experimental method.”
Clint clenched his fist. A fury that words couldn’t express welled up on his face, momentarily halted in speech.

I looked at Clint in silence, then asked.

“Clint. Are you alright?”

He had decided to follow me, but I thought it might be too much for Clint, who had mourned for decades.

Not to mention, now he knew his daughter’s story that he had never known before.

To my question, Clint slowly shook his head.

“No. I’m not alright. I’m so sad that I want to die drinking alcohol, having given up everything. But…….”

Clint continued after a pause, tightly clutching a necklace around his neck.

“My daughter once told me, how could a father like me give up and abandon everything?”

Clint smiled. His smile looked pitifully miserable.

“My daughter entrusted this necklace to another child, even if she were to die…….”

Clint’s voice trailed off, and he scowled, seeming to struggle to suppress his surging emotions. His trembling lips tightly shut, he continued speaking.