Epilogue

Claiomh slowly opened her eyes. She wondered if she should be surprised that the wasteland she last remembered seeing was no longer before her—she questioned herself and found that, for whatever reason, she wasn’t. The trace of exhaustion she still felt upon waking must have been because of how pampered she’d been while sleeping, she reasoned. It was only natural that it would be hard to shake off your drowsiness in a bed as luxurious as this.

“Hmm...” She raised her head suspiciously. She was definitely in a bed. And one with extraordinarily soft cushions—so soft, in fact, that when she stuck her elbow into them to lift herself up, she just ended up buried in them, unable to extricate herself. Fluttering lace. Countless curtains forming a canopy around her. Also fluttering lace. The room was extremely large. Since it had nothing but a bed in it, was it a bedroom? Maybe a sickroom? It seemed ridiculous to her to put a sick person in a bed like this, though.

The fact that there was a window gave her a little peace of mind. She could see outside, so it wasn’t like she was being confined. At least...she didn’t think so.

Doesn’t look like it’s the first floor, she thought, looking out at the branches of the big tree she could see through the window. Anyone would think they could climb down that in a pinch to get out, so they wouldn’t keep prisoners in this room, right?

She slipped out of the bed and found that she was wearing her usual shirt and jeans. Her sneakers also sat beside the bed, the dirt on them not even cleaned off. It didn’t fit the feel of the room at all, she grumbled to no one in particular. It wasn’t that she didn’t like the outfit, she just felt like there was a time and place for these things.

Isn’t that right... Wait. She turned like she always did and then stopped, looking around her blankly. Leki wasn’t there.

What should she do, she wondered. But she couldn’t come up with anything, so she just sighed. There was nothing she could do. There were things that could be immediately solved upon sleeping and waking, and there were things that couldn’t.

If someone walks in right now and goes, “You’re awake, I see,” they’re definitely a villain, right? I mean, that’d be fine with me if they explained what was going on... What exactly happened to me anyway?

She tried to remember and ended up leaning her whole body to the side in puzzlement.

She remembered going to look for Lottecia, but her recollections suddenly cut off there.

She didn’t think more thinking would lead her to the answers she sought.

And just then...

“You’re awake, I see.”

The door opened and someone entered. Claiomh looked up at him.

They had a conversation that lasted a few minutes.

He was the lord of this region.

A worshipper of the Demon King.

He called himself Almagest Betisletha.

◆◇◆◇◆

“What’s going on?!”

She was furious. Of course, that was only natural.

“Where did Seek go?! He acts so self-satisfied and important and then he just disappears like this?!”

“Well, I had a feeling this might happen,” Orphen told the howling Irgitte. He’d thought it was a low chance, however.

“That what might happen, exactly?” she asked, and he smiled.

“He just did precisely what he said he would. He used us as bait. And he headed for his own destination.”

“But why?!”

“Well, he called himself an assassin, didn’t he?” When he said that, Irgitte’s fury subsided somewhat. He could tell from the movement in her throat that she was swallowing.

“What were you guys doing here in the first place?” Orphen asked her.

“...Probably the same thing you are. Investigating the Imminent Domain.”

“I’m—” Leticia attempted to cut in, but Irgitte raised her voice even higher to drown her out.

“Just investigating! We would never do something as outdated as assassinate someone!”

Orphen thought on the two words in silence for a few moments. Investigate. Assassinate. Investigation with a side of assassination.

“In any case, they’re not here anymore and we know their destination is the Imminent Domain. And... Winona seems to be gone too. Along with Claiomh, Majic, and Lottecia.”

“They might have just gotten separated from us.”

“Not Winona. She’s supposed to be watching me. Well... She’s supposed to be guiding me...”

“Which means?”

“Maybe we’re close enough to the Imminent Domain that she doesn’t need to guide me anymore,” he told Leticia and looked around.

Nothing was different about the wasteland around them. There were no sorts of markers or any kind of path leading in one direction or another. Picturing a map of the continent might not actually help, but he figured they were far west of Urbanrama, somewhere near Fenrir’s Forest on the eastern side of the continent. The Imminent Domain...

What is it actually “imminent” to? He had an idea, but he’d never entertained the thought before. Well, now was as good a time as any, he supposed. Winona had already told him they were in conflict with the dragons. In that case, the Imminent Domain must have been where those who challenged the sanctuary resided. The dragons’ sanctuary.

“Let’s suppose there’s a reason for all this. Seek and Kakorkist. What reason would they have to leave us behind and head to the Imminent Domain first?”

“Well, if they were going to assassinate someone, they probably wouldn’t want to do it with people they weren’t familiar with. And I’m guessing that goes for Irgitte as much as it does us.” Leticia answered calmly while Irgitte raised her voice again.

“I told you we weren’t going to assassinate someone! This isn’t the Dark Ages!” She pointed at herself. “We’re not assassins! We’re respectable citizens!”

Orphen didn’t respond to her, instead going on, “Winona. Let’s assume she took Claiomh and Majic and disappeared. Well, I’m just assuming because Claiomh was last seen with her. And Majic went off to look for Winona. What would the reason for that be?”

Leticia thought for quite a long time, and when she responded, she said exactly the same thing Orphen was thinking. “She either didn’t want those two meeting her lord or whatever... Or she wanted them to meet him first. It’s one of those two.”

“Winona—or rather, her lord—wants something from me. They might be hostages. And even if there’s another reason for it, I can’t imagine it’s anything good. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have had to sneak them away in the middle of this chaos.”

“...Krylancelo?”

“Dammit!” Orphen shouted, kicking the ground. “I underestimated them. At the very least, I thought they wouldn’t be able to do anything careless to us. How could I be so naive?!”

“...Who’s this ‘Lottecia’ you mentioned earlier? I don’t think I’ve heard that name before.”

“Yeah, you haven’t met her, Tish. I don’t know where to start... I can’t exactly call her a stranger. She’s Colgon’s—” he started, before a black-haired girl suddenly appeared from behind a nearby rock.

Irgitte silently put her guard up.

Orphen shook his head. “It’s fine, the ghost phenomenon is over. This is Lottecia.”

“Orphen?” Lottecia approached, wooden sword in hand, wary of the two women she’d never seen before. She was slightly out of breath like she’d just been up to something strenuous. “Err, no one was where they were before, so I had to search for a while... What happened?”

“Claiomh and Majic have been taken. It was Winona.” This time, he was sure of the words as he looked up at the sky. He was also sure that someone was listening. He took a breath, and by the time he’d let it out, he’d regained some of his calm, though all the blood that had rushed to his head didn’t fade so quickly.

“You said you wanted to make a deal on even footing, asshole!” he spat.

The wastes were too big for his voice to echo, and the wind was too strong.