It was clearly a face I had never seen before.

The man, with a halo of light from the door gap veiling his head, was a beautiful person with a somewhat unfamiliar, fine impression.

Pale blonde hair and green eyes like transparent glass beads embedded.

When those round eyes, emitting an innocent and pure light, gently curved, Ailean cautiously asked.

“Who are you…?”

The man stared down at Ailean for a moment.

“Oh my. You don’t know me. Even though I’ve become quite a celebrity lately, it’s a bit disappointing that you don’t recognize me at all?”

Saying so while slightly lowering his eyebrows, the man truly looked sad.

“Well. We don’t have time, so let’s hurry along.”

“…What do you mean by that?”

“Poor Ailean. I absolutely hate repeating myself. So make sure you understand the first time.”

So, you see. The man intentionally paused and smiled slyly.

“Right now, your life is in my hands.”

“What?”

There was no time given to ask again what he meant.

Ailean looked with a pale face as the sword in the man’s hand slowly rotated, scraping the floor with a scratching sound.

The sword, which some craftsman must have carefully sharpened and engraved with noble decorations, looked exceptionally fine.

The only problem was that very dark and sticky liquid was dripping incessantly from that sharp blade, soaking the floor.

Even the dull-witted Ailean could not fail to understand at this point.

That sword must have cut down countless innocent lives until now. And now it was aiming for him.

Swish-!

The clear sound of cutting air settled on the blade and descended upon Ailean’s neck.

“I know the book King Iker left in Sano is here. Bring it to me.”

When the land of Sano was completely trampled, and the eagle of Aquila had turned all the numerous fir trees into a huge pile of firewood.

Only then did Merche set foot on those horrific ruins.

Aquila’s army moved first.

The intuition pierces through his mind like an arrow flying from a drawn bow.

Rena Aquila must have noticed Tereze’s defection and acted ahead.

“It’s a mess. They killed everything so thoroughly. At this rate, there’s nothing left alive, is there?”

Rude kicked at the pitch-black ash pile, saying they even killed all the trees as if they were people.

Despite the evidence of hundreds, not just dozens, of deaths right before his eyes, he showed no particular emotion.

It was a life that had never felt remorse for people dying in the first place.

He was confident he could just sit there yawning even if anyone died, except for Merche, the only person.

The problem would be that he alone was fine, and the woman he was cautiously tiptoeing around would never be okay.

Rude slightly turned his head to gauge Merche’s mood.

Sure enough, her eyes and entire face were already gloomy and damp, and her whole body was visibly trembling, properly in mourning.

Rude knew the reason why she was so anxious.

So he casually threw out words of comfort to the woman who could barely breathe.

“We haven’t seen a corpse yet. Don’t declare your sister dead without even checking. That’s a damn nasty thing to do.”

“…Christine couldn’t have survived here…”

“Stop it. I said to speak after seeing for yourself, didn’t I? It’s not too late yet.”

He added, grumbling.

“Your sister isn’t a softie who’d die easily. She’s a tough one, I tell you. You didn’t see how she stubbornly bossed me around even when she couldn’t see. At that level, she’d survive wherever you throw her.”

Although the content was strangely insulting Christine, surprisingly, it provided some comfort to Merche.

After all, it wasn’t exactly wrong.

Certainly, Christine wasn’t a child who would die easily.

Rather, if there was even a small chance of survival, she was the type to cling to it tenaciously and somehow keep breathing.

Merche carefully examined here and there, trying to calm her increasingly urgent breathing.

It was when she was about to enter the entrance of a half-destroyed building.

“What’s wrong? Why did you stop?”

As Merche, who had been constantly checking the faces of all visible corpses, suddenly stopped in her tracks, Rude also frowned sharply.

He reached out to grab Merche’s shoulder even before hearing an answer.

What if this frail woman were to collapse?

Given that Merche habitually skipped meals even in normal times, she might faint in this situation.

He glared fiercely, scanning Merche from head to toe.

It was a kind of overprotection on his part, preparing for the worst-case scenario.

Coincidentally, that firm support became a lifeline for Merche to hold onto.

She leaned slightly against Merche’s embrace, trying to suppress her dizzy mind.

“Something is calling out to me…, but I don’t know whose voice it is. There’s no one alive here, so I wonder if it’s an auditory hallucination…”

“A voice?”

Merche explained that she heard someone asking for help.

Rude narrowed his eyes as if pondering, and subtly pulled Merche’s body closer.

Maybe a ghost appeared because so many died? Stay closer in case there’s something strange.

He barely suppressed the corners of his mouth that were trying to curl up.

In fact, he didn’t care whether what Merche heard was a ghost’s voice or an auditory hallucination.

Why would that matter? What’s important to him is the fact that Merche is in his arms right now.

Above all, what made Rude’s shoulders rise was the fact that Merche relied on him as someone to depend on in an anxious situation.

That’s how it starts, gradually coloring her.

So that she can’t overcome her anxiety without him. So that even for trivial reasons, Merche can’t easily let go of him.

Imagining the future he so desperately wanted, words flowed smoothly.

First, to comfort Merche so she wouldn’t be too afraid. Just make up existing and non-existing words to seem knowledgeable.

He simply thought and threw out random guesses.

“There are no living humans here. So it must be either an auditory hallucination or… something else. Ah, didn’t you say you could communicate with those divine beasts or whatever? Then maybe a divine beast here spoke to you?”

“…Divine beast. Sano has divine trees, not divine beasts.”

“Huh?”

“Divine trees. There might be a living fir tree here. If that tree spoke to me, I should try to communicate again.”

Well, do as you please. Rude answered glumly.

No way, the words he carelessly threw out couldn’t be right. But what kind of family has divine trees instead of divine beasts?

He thought about how Elizabeth would have been dumbfounded if she had heard this.

The fact that Sano was the only one of the six meritorious families to have a divine tree as its symbol, and that it was a fir tree, was something he had once learned from Elizabeth.

However, for him who shook off boring knowledge as soon as he heard it, it had already become a fact he had never heard before.

For some unknown reason, Rude scratched his nape with a sour feeling.

“A living tree. Sano’s divine tree…”

Unlike Rude, who secretly hoped his words were wrong, Merche quite seriously searched for the living fir tree.

Fortunately, she had attempted something similar before. None other than in the sea of Fondo.

When competing among successors, Merche went to the coral sea.

And there, she succeeded in detecting the divine beast and summoned the kelpie carrying the flag.

Trying to recall that memory, she began to focus all her nerves on finding an entity to connect her consciousness to calmly.

‘…Please help me. I am here.’

A faintly audible voice. Only then did Merche become certain.

It really was the divine tree speaking to her.

After exchanging several questions and answers, she found out that the divine tree speaking to her was already dying and was using its last remaining strength to ask for help.

The divine tree desperately repeated only one thing over and over.

‘Please go to where there are the most papers. Where there is an object made by binding many papers together. My master’s child is there.’

She wanted to ask for more information, but the tree couldn’t hold on any longer.

Merche thought again. Where there are the most papers. An object made by binding many papers together, that is, a book. If it’s a place with books and the most papers, then…

“Rude. Where do you think the library might be here?”

“I don’t know. The Aquila bastards smashed everything up, so I can’t even tell what’s what, let alone which one was the library.”

“We must find it. Isn’t there any way?”

“Well, our clever Lady Merche would know better than me with my empty head. Relax and think about it calmly.”

As he said this, Rude grabbed Merche’s hand as she tried to move away from his embrace.

Ah, only then did Merche realize the embarrassing fact and sighed briefly.

Without realizing it, she had been leaning against Rude’s chest, seeking to alleviate her overwhelming anxiety.

However, despite hesitating, Merche ultimately didn’t pull her hand away from Rude’s large hand that was almost enveloping hers.

Wasn’t coming here with Rude her last indulgence from the start?

Having resolved to die, she had wished, even if just a little, to spend enough time with him beforehand and create meaningful memories.

Thinking of it as part of that wish, Merche, while holding hands, sank back into thought.