CHAPTER 4

The Gentleman and the Serpent

01

Siegmund was beside himself.

“M… Mariela!”

Not much time had passed since Mariela had run away from home.

With his Spirit Eye open, Sieg scoured every nook and cranny of Sunlight’s Canopy for Mariela. Unable to just sit by and watch, one of the regulars, Old Man Ghark, called to him.

“What’s the matter, sonny?”

“Mari… Mari… Mariela!”

“So that’s it. Your wife’s gone and run out on ya.”

“No, Mr. Gordon. Mr. Sieg hasn’t proposed to Miss Mari yet.”

Sieg, who had promptly begun saying nothing but “Mariela” despite the fact that not much time had passed since she’d left, was incapable of explaining, so Gordon had drawn his own conclusions. Sherry, who’d returned from school, made a cruel amendment to the explanation. Merle, the housewife intelligence agent, also latched onto this conversation.

“Oh? Weren’t you plannin’ to propose soon? I was wonderin’ if you’d made a complete mess of it and got dumped.”

“!!!”

It was nothing short of what one would expect from a person in the know. She’d delivered the topic Sieg least wanted anyone to touch on with exquisite timing.

At this, Sieg’s face paled.

It had been a year since the Labyrinth was killed. Things had been extremely busy back then.

Although the number of alchemists in the Labyrinth City had increased, Mariela was the only one who could create special-grade potions. She was still a rare breed, and the groups trying to have her work for them via kidnapping, blackmail, false friendship, or seduction were too numerous to count. Of course, Sieg stopped these things before they happened, either single-handedly or with the help of Margrave Schutzenwald or the Aguinas family. Sieg had tried his best to keep Mariela safe, but maybe he’d been a bit too overprotective.

Although Mariela had been in many dangerous situations, she never experienced the suspension bridge effect because Sieg always safeguarded her from behind the scenes. She’d grown quite comfortable with Sieg, who was something like a parent watching over their child.

Far from the relationship being carefree, it had become careless.

At a glance, the relationship between the two seemed rather harmonious. Although they weren’t hitched, they had a calmness like an old couple who’d been married for a long time.

There’s no point in saying Sieg was too lazy—after all, the regulars of Sunlight’s Canopy, including Sherry, Emily, and Merle, had been saying that plenty.

Maybe he was nervous about the way things were going, or perhaps his facade was cracking just a little, leading him to ask himself if he could even take any more of this. Siegmund, who had appeared to think he had all the time in the world, finally got off his laurels.

In the year since the subjugation of the Labyrinth, Mariela’s alchemist training goals and stock of special-grade potions were more or less in order, and Sieg had intended to make a move to improve their worn-out relationship when Mariela’s life had settled down.

Had Sieg failed, or did he make a mistake in the preliminary step?

Even the intelligence agent Merle couldn’t understand Sieg’s explanation when all he spoke was Mariela-ese, but news like “Siegmund got dumped” running amok through the Labyrinth City would be awful for the poor hunter. This was no time for Sieg to be forgetting what he’d fought, bled, and killed for.

“M… M… M… N… Not yet. We just had a little fight…”

“Ah, he spoke.”

“In that case, go after her right now and make up! She’ll surely forgive you if you offer a heartfelt apology.”

Amber lit a fire under Sieg, who had finally regained his words and his wits.

“I understand.” Sieg nodded vigorously. Amber often told off her husband, Dick, who repeatedly did stupid things, but she always accepted his earnest apologies. Her words carried weight with Sieg.

“Siggy, do you know where Mari is?” Emily asked, puzzled.

Sieg nodded, said, “Don’t worry. I have my ways,” then headed for the rear garden.

“Illuminaria! Illuminaria, I need your help!”

—What is it? Geez…—

After wasting his Spirit Eye and summoning the sacred tree spirit Illuminaria, Sieg rushed to make preparations to pursue Mariela.

“Siggy sure is slow, isn’t he?”

“Right? And I can’t believe he got so carried away he made Miss Mari angry enough to run away from home in the first place.”

“Right? I heard women hate men who act like their boyfriend right away.”

“Right?”

As Sieg grumbled quietly after Emily and Sherry deliberately badmouthed him loud enough for him to hear, he finally departed Sunlight’s Canopy.

02

“I knew it’d be here…”

Mariela and the others had made their way to the first floor after the fire in the carrion caves went out.

It must have been around noon by the time they’d reached the first floor of the southeast tower after cooling and ventilating the nearly airtight cave system. Koo had come through the tunnels after Donnino had made them wide and tall enough for a raptor. After trekking through the hot caverns, Mariela urged the others to rest, saying, “It’s probably safe from here on.” She searched the rooms in the vicinity of this tower by herself and soon found what she’d been looking for.

This tower had Mariela’s workshop from Sunlight’s Canopy. She’d thought there was no doubt it would also have this room, where she’d spent a very long time and learned alchemy.

“I lost it without warning in the Stampede… Brings back memories.”

The cottage in the Fell Forest where Mariela had lived with her master two hundred years ago. It was there, the same as it had been.

The dim, confined abode was made more cramped by the medicinal herbs off-handedly left here and there. Yet it lacked even the bare minimum of household items necessary for daily life, and it was a dreary place that resembled a storage shed.

To Mariela, it had only been a few years since she’d lived in that little cottage all alone, but when she stood in this place once more, all she recalled were the hectic and joyous days she’d spent with her master when she was very young. Compared with now, her life back then was rather uneventful, but she also felt that was when she was most content.

Was it really this dark…?

Mariela felt like it had been far brighter and warmer when her master was there.

In which case, this place was likely a reproduction of the room from when Mariela lived alone.

Although Sunlight’s Canopy, where she lived with Sieg, was chilly and made of stone, for some reason it was very cozy and comforting. She’d almost forgotten what it felt like being here.

Most of Mariela’s life had been spent at this cottage, so it was full of memories and utterly sentimental.

But she neither wanted to go back to it nor felt like she had come home.

This little cottage in the Fell Forest was an important place that remained in Mariela’s memories, but she accepted with a strange feeling that it was no longer her home.

“No matter what kind of world this is, the potions made here have an effect for sure, so I gotta use what I can… Oh, there it is!”

Mariela took out a bundle wrapped several times around in cloth from the top of the food storage cabinet near the sink. This object that leaked cool air was Ice Spirit’s Kiss. It was a frost-like plant that clung to things like tree trunks and windows on frosty mornings. Since it melted when sunlight touched it, Mariela got up early on chilly winter mornings before the sun rose and went around checking for it. Collecting it was frigid, tough work, but processing and selling Ice Spirit’s Kiss had provided her a good source of income in the summer.

The name was based on the legend “If an ice spirit kisses you, it will steal your body heat, and you’ll die,” and the object did indeed steal heat.

The aboveground parts resembling semitransparent vines were cold as ice, but they melted and disappeared if a certain amount of heat was applied to them after collection. Since the material was sensitive to both light and heat, you had to store it securely, but Icy Wind Potions, which improved the effects of Ice Spirit’s Kiss, had been sold at a reasonable price in the summer as potions that could cool the air in a room for about half a day.

“There were no magical cooling tools two hundred years ago, after all.”

Since there were devices for keeping rooms comfortable now, the potions were hardly necessary anymore, but two hundred years ago, they were an essential revenue source for Mariela during the hotter months of the year.

“Still, this pantry’s pretty bare.”

The cooling box the Ice Spirit’s Kiss had been stored in was made to preserve food with ice. With the Ice Spirit’s Kiss taking up space in the container, however, there was only a small area in it where food could be kept. Ironically, Mariela’s diet had been so poor that she hadn’t even needed the entire available spot in the cooling box. It wasn’t so bad when her master was there and they had charred monster meat and souvenirs she’d brought from somewhere, but Mariela had lived very modestly when she was by herself.

“I feel like the things in it were slightly more varied when my master was there, but still, it was nothing but weird monster meat… Even so, every day was fun with her around, you know?”

“Rawr.”

The salamander on Mariela’s neck responded to her mutterings.

Hectic, precious days gone. A warm time in her life.

I have to repay her…

Mariela made a note of this and set about making an Icy Wind Potion.

Night came yet again—one of many by this point.

Mariela and the others confirmed it was now dark outside the windows and passed through the door leading to the entrance hall, where the tree monster, the Necklace, was encamped.

Since it had roots, it couldn’t travel itself, but it was a fashionable tree monster that manipulated vines as hard as steel and tried to catch people by the neck and decorate itself with them.

Much like humans who enjoyed excessive decorations, this Necklace, too, had a slightly peculiar hobby: keeping hairy caterpillar monsters as pets. No one knew if they were famous among tree monsters as rare pets, but Mariela and the others hardly enjoyed the nasty bugs. In particular, the experience of being chased by hairy caterpillars seemed to have left Yuric deeply scarred, and their current strategy was tailored to avoid as much fighting as possible.

As though it took the term beauty sleep seriously, the tree monster slept soundly and returned to being just a plant while the sun was down. Mariela’s group slowly and quietly approached the door at the center of the entrance so as not to rouse the fearsome monster.

The solid door, much taller than Mariela and the others, opened outward without a sound when they pushed it.

The party had traveled along the top of the outer wall many times over, and it wasn’t the first time they’d been outside. Still, they felt suffocated by the heavy air. It was more than the fact that it was heavy and damp.

They were underwater. Everything in this world of water had drifted down from the surface and accumulated here.

Dark madness mingled with the moist air. Mariela, Yuric, and Donnino could no longer feel the kindness of the water that reflected light and nurtured monsters. A white building with many jade, dome-shaped ceilings piled on top of each other towered at the center of the courtyard. Now that there was no illumination, it was utterly dark and oppressive, as though it were leaning on them.

“That’s gotta be the temple.” Mariela had felt that way since she’d first seen the building. But what on earth was it a temple to?

Surely the answers to everything awaited them inside the structure. Unfortunately, that wasn’t where they were headed.

“It’s over there. Let’s move,” Donnino called to Mariela, who was looking up at the temple.

They left the path leading to the temple and made for the east side of the courtyard. That was where they hoped to find the trapped Grandel.

As the group proceeded through the damp, oppressive air, black monsters appeared around them like sludge swirling up from the bottom of the water. The creatures lifted their bodies like rolling, muddy goo, and Mariela, Yuric, and Donnino hurled fire bottles at them.

“We can’t waste time on the small fries. Hurry up.”

Their goal was the base of the east tower. The raptor carrying Mariela and Yuric matched Donnino’s pace as he ran with his heavy hammer, and the girls tossed alchemical explosives at the black monsters to keep them in check.

“I see it! Grandel’s armor!”

“The lamia’s there, too! The night is short, so let’s hurry!”

The lamia slowly lifted her head as she scowled at the uninvited guests.

Seeing how big she was from up close took their breath away.

“Shaa, sha.”

The lamia made menacing sounds, and Donnino kept her in check with his hammer as Mariela and Yuric threw potions at her. The concoctions sapped her body heat and hindered her movement, but they weren’t enough to stop such a powerful monster.

Donnino raised his hammer overhead and struck at the lamia. Mariela and Yuric seized that opening to throw more Icy Wind Potions at the creature’s tail and body. The numerous Icy Wind Potions freely hurled at the lamia worked well enough that even Donnino could dodge her attacks. He avoided or deflected strikes from the lamia’s six arms with his hammer as he slowly drew her away from Grandel.

“Now! The tail’s separated from the armor!”

The instant the lamia’s tail, which had been twined around Grandel’s heavy armor, released it, Yuric and Mariela rushed forward. The pair jumped from the raptor and past the half-frozen lamia, though the giant creature still tried to stop them with its tail. Yuric used her whip to parry the attack, and Mariela took that opportunity to open Grandel’s heavy armor from the outside.

“Mr. Grandel! Hurry!”

The armor, custom-made by Donnino, had been built to affix to a raptor with Grandel inside. Grandel couldn’t move around while wearing it, but it came with two hatches that could be opened both from the inside and outside. Mariela opened the outside lock on one of them and told Grandel they’d come to help him. That was when…

“Shhhaaaaa!”

“Guh!”

Mariela turned her head at the lamia’s menacing sound that shook the courtyard and saw the monster blow Donnino away with a single attack. Now free of distraction, it turned its attention to Yuric, who’d been handling the tail, attacking her with water magic.

“Yuric!!!” Mariela cried. No one had expected the lamia to be capable of casting spells.

The many half-moon-shaped water attacks launched at Yuric were likely sharp blades of liquid. Yuric instinctively ducked and avoided the lamia’s spells.

Not a moment later, Yuric came to realize that she hadn’t necessarily avoided them.

Behind Yuric, who had desperately jumped away, black shadows resembling people on horses rose and didn’t show a hint of flinching upon taking a blow from the sharp water blades.

03

When Mariela and the others had opened the door to that shrine in that marshland in the Fell Forest, the end of the rope they’d pulled on the door with was fastened to the heavy armor Grandel was holed up in.

They’d used it as a weight.

If he’d gotten out of his iron suit back then, Grandel probably wouldn’t have been sitting at the bottom of the water in the courtyard for days. Unfortunately, he’d been pulled into this world of water in his heavy armor, along with everyone else.

“Ohhh. What is happening?”

All Grandel could do was watch as everyone sank toward the bottom of the water.

Even when he’d tried to escape, he couldn’t open the armor on his own, perhaps due to water pressure.

The other mysterious thing was that although this metal suit was sophisticated, it had an opening for visibility, and the joints weren’t airtight. Yet no water entered it.

When Grandel had calmly examined the situation to discern what was happening, it seemed to him that his comrades were sinking. It was as though they were all being carried in the same direction toward a temple of a style that Grandel had never seen before, surrounded by ramparts and six towers.

As they got closer to the structure, one party member, then another, was carried to the top floor of a tower.

“It appears everyone is being taken to the top level of a different tower. Hrm, so I am going to that one?”

Perhaps his comrades had been overwhelmed by the water and rendered unconscious, because they didn’t fight against the current as they disappeared into the towers through open windows at the top of each.

“They don’t appear to be terribly complicated buildings. If so, we will be able to come together again before long.”

Just as Grandel murmured this…

Bam.

Grandel’s heavy armor got stuck in a window.

“Oh? I’m not going in?”

The armor was massive. It had been carried diagonally and should have smoothly entered the tower through the window, but it got stuck with a thud and then scraped the tower’s outer wall as it sank toward the courtyard on the first floor.

His comrades in the Black Iron Freight Corps had mocked the metallic suit Grandel used for being “box armor” and the like. At a glance, it was awkward, rough, full-body metal protection, the likes of which might be worn by heavy infantry.

Moreover, it was enormous. It was so big that the slender Grandel could have fit two of himself inside it, and it was even too tall for him. The surface, the underside, and the joints were all made of metal plates.

Any knowledgeable eye looking over the armor would realize that the joints, which should have been crafted with ease of movement as a priority, had a particular gimmick to them.

To tell the truth, the armor Grandel wore was not expected to move at all.

Its sophisticated design allowed it to be affixed on the back of a raptor and had the joints move on their own to match the raptor’s movements and keep balance. Although its structure allowed one to escape from it if they so chose, it wasn’t so different from being packed in a box.

Grandel was so physically frail that he couldn’t even hold a shield. If he couldn’t move with even moderate equipment, then prioritizing survival regardless of the avenue of attack was clearly the way to go. With this in mind, Donnino had put his hobby to full use and had completed this heavy, boxlike armor.

Although the product forced inconvenience on Grandel, livability was taken into consideration accordingly: The interior was lined with a soft and fluffy material, and a stockpile of food, albeit a small one, was built in. The box-shaped container even included a small window for exchanging goods.

As luck would have it, edible aquatic plants also grew in this courtyard, and Grandel, who had a small appetite to begin with and ate mainly vegetables, didn’t starve.

“I’m bored…”

During the day, the place filled with water, and Grandel couldn’t leave the armor due to the pressure. At night, black monsters surrounded him, meaning he couldn’t risk leaving then, either. Fortunately, Grandel’s shield skills seemed to be effective against the inky creatures, as they didn’t enter through gaps in the armor or attack, but even though he was safe, Grandel was also stuck.

It was a small, lone snake that brought him comfort.

“A monster, I believe. Still, it’s quite charming.”

The white serpent had a pair of pectoral fin-shaped protrusions, and the tip of its tail, its fins, and the area around its head were all pale pink. It was a very, very small snake, only long enough to circle one of Grandel’s slender arms once.

It had probably gotten lost not long after it was born.

Although tiny, the creature threatened Grandel with shaa, shaa sounds. When he tore up some meat from his rations and fed it to the creature, its abdomen swelled, and it curled up in Grandel’s hand, where it fell asleep.

It was only one day that Grandel had direct contact with the serpent. The following day, it had grown so large it couldn’t fit into the aperture in the armor anymore.

Did it think of Grandel as its parent for giving it food, or did it understand it wouldn’t be attacked if it coiled around his armor? The snake eventually wrapped around Grandel and stayed there, eating those memory stealers.

Every time morning came, monsters were born and the world became an ocean. Grandel watched the black creatures disappear like sludge dissolving and the newborn monsters eating them and growing rapidly. At night, the inky creatures surged from the north and both ate and were eaten by the new monsters, and most of the latter died out during the night.

However, only the snake, protected by Grandel’s shield skills, survived repeated encounters with the black blobs, and it continued to grow at such a rate that it would be more accurate to say it was evolving.

How many days had passed by the time the tail that had once barely fit around Grandel’s slender arm grew large enough to twine around his armor over and over?

How long had it been since the last time Grandel saw another human peek through a hatch in his armor?

How much time had gone by before the ebon creatures resembling a group of cavalry materialized to rout the black monsters the lamia was effortlessly defeating?

Day by day, the lamia was growing into an immense and powerful monster.

However, the ebon cavalry swallowed both the surrounding monsters and the inky memory thieves like a surging tide, and the battle repeated every night.

It was as though they didn’t know what it was to perish, and they knew no retreat. The ebon cavalry was like the ravages of war born from foolish humans.

The shadow of war closed in.

When dawn broke and the water returned, the dark raiders curled up their bodies and stopped moving as though balking at being melted by the water, but when night arrived, they awoke without fail and overran the area.

Perhaps because they were getting practice, their movements sharpened every night. No matter how much stronger the lamia became, she couldn’t bring down the ebon cavalry.

Exactly how long this had been happening was unclear by the eve when Mariela’s group appeared before Grandel and the lamia.

04

Mariela thought the black shadows that appeared behind Yuric looked like a troop of horseback riders standing out against backlight.

Even when they were at a standstill, the way their shapes changed moment to moment made them seem more like a mass of multiple people than a uniform group. The humanoid upper bodies, straddling shadows with multiple legs reminiscent of horses, carried long weapons akin to spears.

Invaders…? It’s like a war…

Mariela had already realized these shadowy monsters were the incarnation of a past calamity.

She’d seen famine and plague. This new entity was the ravages of an ancient war.

Before the dark raiders’ weapons could strike Yuric, the lamia’s water blades pummeled them repeatedly.

The liquid razors tore the cavalry’s front row to pieces. However, the line behind it immediately replaced them, and the company’s numbers didn’t change. Their ranks had seemingly replenished when no one was looking. The shadowy figures readied their spears.

They probably decided the lamia was their enemy, as the cavalry unleashed spear attacks at her in perfect coordination.

“Shhaaa, sha!”

The lamia tried to mow down the attacks with her tail, but it had grown stiff due to the Icy Wind Potions and couldn’t move properly, so the only thing she accomplished was being a shield against the spears.

“Mariela, get Grandel now!”

Yuric’s shout brought Mariela back to her senses. She opened the door on the back of Grandel’s heavy armor and called to him.

“Mr. Grandel, Mr. Grandel, hurry!”

“Oh, it’s Miss Mariela. My apologies, but would you have a potion handy? I’ve been in this position for a long time and am unable to move.”

Grandel’s face appeared from within the metal container. His voice was extremely low, and his slender frame seemed even thinner now. He’d lived on preserved food and aquatic plants for a long while. That he was so weakened was only logical. Even so, Grandel understood well enough what was going on. He drained the potion he was given with a bleak expression, then smoothly slipped out of his armor with umbrella in hand.

“Let’s go now.”

Grandel began running toward the lamia.

Although he’d recovered with the potion, that didn’t mean he regained his lost body weight. Grandel’s legs were weak, and his breath was ragged after only a bit of movement.

He was so frail that he should have taken the opportunity to retreat while the lamia and the black monsters were fighting.

But Grandel had broken into a run.

The normal monsters born during the day attacked the black creatures that came at night, but that didn’t mean they were allies. Mariela and Yuric knew that well from their miserable time being chased by the Necklace and the hairy caterpillars.

Grandel was a former member of the Labyrinth Suppression Forces and had faced many fearsome beings as part of the Black Iron Freight Corps. At the end of the day, monsters were monsters, and Grandel understood they couldn’t coexist with humans.

However, even knowing all that, he’d started running.

Because in the days Grandel had spent with the lamia, he had a feeling the creature possessed some power of communication. The glances he’d exchanged with the massive thing made him sure of it.

Maybe it was only that their interests had coincidentally aligned. But the lamia hadn’t tried to hurt Grandel. If she’d constricted him with that powerful tail, there was no doubt his heavy armor would have been crushed the moment his skill ran out.

That was enough to spur on Grandel. He was a gentleman and a “legendary hero.”

“Shield.”

The ebon cavalry changed and rained countless spears down on Grandel as he rushed toward the lamia.

Using his opened umbrella in place of a shield, he warded off the polearms, but the cloth of the umbrella was torn to pieces from just that one attack, and the impact sent Grandel flying.

Toward the lamia.

Grandel’s shield skills were powerful, but the man himself was light and frail. So even if he could defend against a strike, he couldn’t reciprocate that energy.

Grandel controlled the angle at which he took the attack and even made use of the impact that sent him flying so he would come to rest in front of the lamia.

“That did the trick. Earth Wall, Shield.”

He could no longer use the umbrella. Grandel, clad in lightweight equipment like an ordinary citizen might wear to go harvesting, formed a wall with earth magic, then used his Shield skill to construct a simple barrier from the top.

Grandel’s Shield skill completely blocked the attack from the dark raiders, which should have finished the lamia off. Unfortunately, Grandel wasn’t a mage, so his conjured barricade was fragile. It collapsed after absorbing the impact of the many spears.

The lamia used the dust cloud from the collapsing wall of earth as a smoke screen to rain down blades of water on the charging soldiers.

Although the ebon cavalry was torn to pieces, they didn’t seem agitated in the least, and they were already preparing their next assault.

Grandel’s assistance had improved the situation for the moment, but how much longer could he endure the attacks from the shadowy army?

“Guess we got no choice. We’ll help you, Grandel. Hey now, don’t hiss at me, snake lady.”

With a sidelong glance at the lamia giving a short, menacing sound, Donnino got in position next to Grandel. Mariela and Yuric also moved next to the snakelike monster as they threw fire bottles to keep the gathering inky blob creatures in check.

Grandel’s Earth Wall and Shield skill blocked the dark raiders’ attacks aimed at the lamia, and the lamia’s water blades and Donnino’s hammer counterattacked. Mariela and Yuric hurled fire bottles at the slime-like black monsters, which were steadily increasing in number, to keep them in check so they wouldn’t surround the group.

The viscous memory stealers burned well.

The entire courtyard was already a sea of fire, and the shadowy riders emerging from it were like an advancing army.

“!!”

A sound loud enough to rupture one’s eardrums reverberated through the courtyard.

It was the bellow of the ebon cavalry—a war cry and the howl of beasts.

The thunderous roar shook the air and caused Mariela to freeze. When she looked around, she saw that the amorphous, shadowy cavalry quivered as its members roused themselves and stood from within the flames.

“G-goblins…?”

Smirking black shadows carried weapons that were somewhere between swords and poles.

Mariela thought the figures, mad with the pleasure of pillaging, the excitement of murder, and the joy of devastation, were like an attacking swarm of goblins.

“No. Those things, those kinda things, could surely only be humans,” Yuric disagreed.

The flames from the likes of fire bottles burned up their fuel and could only last a short time. The army trampled over and extinguished the weakened blaze as they surrounded Mariela and Yuric, and there was no way Yuric could deal with the likes of them alone.

Grandel, who was defending against the black raiders’ attacks, was probably close to his magical power and stamina’s limits. The wounds Donnino and the lamia suffered were steadily getting worse, and the circle of monsters surrounding Mariela and Yuric was gradually tightening.

I can at least heal them…

Mariela turned around to use restorative potions on Donnino and the lamia. There she saw the dark raiders, which still should have been farther away, closing in like a tsunami.

Grin.

Mariela thought the ebon things, which seemed to lack eyes and noses, were contorting their faces with glee.

Black spears rained down. The many polearms easily crushed Grandel’s Earth Wall. Just as their blades were about to pierce Donnino, Grandel, and the lamia, however…

“Eek ook!”

Something descended from the sky.

05

“Eek ook, eek, eek ook, ook!”

“Whaaaaaa—?!”

“…He’s finally gone back to the wild?”

The one who came from the sky, or to be precise, from the northeast tower via the outer wall, was a monkey. Wait, no, it was Edgan, who should have been human.

“Why is he saying ‘eek, eek’?”

“He probably lost too much of his memory and went back to bein’ a monkey!”

What in the world? Did people revert to monkeys when they lost too much of themselves?

Or was that only the case for Edgan?

Edgan still had to count as a member of the human race, technically. He was a bit dirty, but it was unmistakably him. The fact that he was drooling slightly was not because he’d become a beast, but because his eyes were locked on the lamia’s chest.

Even if he had turned into a monkey, he held his dual swords properly in his hands and slashed at the dark raiders with flames surrounding his left arm and wind on his right—his Dual Sword Elements skill.

“Edgan, to think you would have learned how to shorten your skill chants! That’s our captain!” Grandel exclaimed, offering a compliment that would have pleased Edgan had he been lucid.

“No, that ain’t what’s surprisin’,” Donnino replied calmly.

“Hrm. It is important to be aware that chanting is not language, but a recitation…,” Grandel murmured thoughtfully.

“That may be true, but that’s not what I’m talkin’ about, either! Meg-ham!”

As he quipped, Donnino spoke an abbreviated Mega Hammer that was either intoned in a strange accent or a simple mispronunciation. Regardless, the skill was executed beautifully. As one might’ve expected from the guy in charge of maintaining the armored carriages in the Black Iron Freight Corps, Donnino seemed quite dexterous, but it was embarrassing for the people nearby to hear this chanting. Perhaps the man himself also thought it was unacceptable, as he corrected himself back to saying the usual “Mega Hammer” from the second attack onward.

“Hum. I can’t let myself be outdone! Wall Shield.”

Grandel, being who he was, chanted the earth magic Earth Wall and the shield skill Shield in combination to form a magnificent barrier of dirt and stone. After having come this far, you might say it was a new composite skill. That was a “legendary hero” for you. His potential was staggering.

Although he didn’t speak in a human tongue, the A-Ranker’s appearance seemed to be heartening to everyone. The sight of Edgan springing around with inhuman jumping power and routing the dark raiders seemed to give everyone their strength back.

Mariela said, “I’m sorry for attacking you before,” and sprinkled a potion on the lamia to heal her wounds. She didn’t know whether the creature forgave her and Yuric for their earlier friendly fire, but the lamia kept attacking the ebon cavalry while Grandel deftly protected her from any incoming attacks. Donnino and Yuric mowed down the approaching infantry, and Mariela threw fire bottles.

The tables had turned.

“Ook!”

There was even leeway for Edgan to blow a kiss at the lamia in his spare moments and for the lamia to hiss a genuine threat to him in return as she wriggled her six arms.

“Eek ook!”

He certainly was ook-cited. He was having a ball.

“Not that! The enemy, the black monsters are closin’ in!!!”

Could Yuric, as an animal tamer, somehow understand Edgan’s monkey speech?

When everyone looked at the area around the collapsed outer wall to the north where Yuric pointed, they saw creatures darker than night surging into the courtyard where Mariela and the others were.

Had Edgan come running to help the two girls, Mariela and Yuric, as well as his comrades in the Black Iron Freight Corps, or had he simply wanted to get acquainted with the feminine lamia? Either way, it doesn’t do well to dwell on the likes of Erotigan’s easy to understand behavioral principles, but there was no doubt that everyone owed the man their lives. However, he’d been protecting the north side, and due to his absence, the inky memory stealers were heading for this courtyard. They looked to be moving for the temple in the center. The things surged like water that had just broken through a dam.

“This’s bad.”

“Let us withdraw for now!”

“Ook.”

Edgan’s animal cry was the only ook-citing thing, and even he wore a serious expression like everyone else.

They all turned on their heels and began running toward the entrance on the south side of the outer wall.

But could any of them escape from the horde that gave chase?

Although the door was only a short jog away, the distance between it and Mariela’s group felt infinite, and even the damp air of the courtyard seemed to be hindering them. Would Mariela and her friends be consumed like debris against a crashing wave? Perhaps their memories and existences were doomed to be scattered and lost.

Mariela was about to be overwhelmed by the looming despair when…

“Groooooooar!”

A wyvern? A dragon? A roar reverberated from the northwest.

A tornado whirled from the direction of the cry, swallowing the sea of darkness behind Mariela and carrying it far away into the sky.

A thunderous breeze blew.

The gale caused by the whirlwind whistled past Mariela and the others. It was powerful and rapidly grew stronger. It even made breathing difficult, as though one had been submerged. Invited by the presence of water, the humidity gathered like a dense fog, and a light shone in through the darkness above.

“It’s morning, the water’s comin’!” Donnino shouted and immediately threw the fire bottle at his waist with all he had before hoisting Grandel onto his shoulder and breaking into a sprint toward the entrance. “Let’s hurry back!”

“Rar!”

The one who responded to Donnino’s shout wasn’t Yuric, who was completely mesmerized as she stared at the tornado, but the raptor Koo, who carried her and Mariela. He took care not to let them fall as he scattered trampled black monsters and dashed toward the entrance.

“Eek ook, eek, eek ook, ook, ook!”

Ape-gan…no, Edgan, who had been holding back the dark raiders, drove his Dual Sword Elements into them as though to finish them off. Then, for some reason, he ran up the wall and returned to the northeast tower, the opposite direction from Mariela and the others.

Night shifting into morning and the world filling with water took a very short amount of time.

The whole group rushed toward the outer wall entrance to escape from the rising sea.

Grandel, who had exhausted his stamina, lifted his head and looked in the lamia’s direction, despite being carried by Donnino. As though she noticed his gaze, the lamia stopped attacking the black raiders for just an instant and turned to watch Grandel depart.

Grandel saw the lamia gazing at him from beyond the white fog that was growing ever denser.

And, in the instant the lamia’s caution lessened, the ebon cavalry, which had decided the defenseless Grandel and the rest were their prey, began to charge.

“This won’t do! They’re coming!”

“Gh, we don’t have time to fight! We gotta run at full speed!!!”

Despite losing many of their ranks to fire bottles and Edgan’s attacks, the dark raiders charged the group with bizarre speed. How could anyone possibly stop things that felt neither pain nor fear?

“Wall, Wall! It’s no good!”

Grandel’s Earth Wall had been able to keep the shadowy warriors in check precisely because he’d combined it with Shield. And his Shield skill was worthless when its target was far away from him.

The likes of a fragile heap of stone and dirt could only serve as a blinder, and the dark raiders were rapidly closing the distance as they approached.

“I’m no good at swimmin’.”

“I am the same.”

“Mr. Donnino?! Mr. Grandel?!”

In order to keep the ebon cavalry in check and let Mariela and Yuric escape, Donnino stopped and assumed a stance with his hammer. Grandel, whom he’d been carrying, landed on the ground and used his remaining magical power to erect an Earth Wall and reinforce it with his Shield skill to stop the raiders’ charge.

The black raiders’ attack should have instantly reached them.

“What…?”

“Hey, Grandel, that’s…”

At the unexpected halt of the pursuit, Grandel peeked past the Earth Wall.

“Oh…ohhh, the lamia…”

The lamia, which he had spent the last few days with and had been fighting with until just a short time ago, twined around and constricted the shadowy soldiers to stop their charge.

However, the dark raiders refused to relent, even with a lamia crushing them.

They penetrated the lamia’s body, and black spears pierced through from the inner side.

“Sha, shhaaa!”

Although blood spilled from her and she became more and more like a pincushion, the lamia’s grip didn’t weaken.

“What are you doing, lamia? Stop this at once.”

Even if the massive monster didn’t understand Grandel’s words, perhaps she understood his feelings.

The lamia lifted her head to look at Grandel, then bent her upper body back and forth and tightly hugged herself with her six arms, as though to restrain her own body.

“Ssshhhhaaaaaaaaa!!!” she screamed to the heavens. Grandel thought that voice sounded more like the agonizing death of a maiden than an intimidating snake.

“Lamia!”

Advanced snake monsters sometimes had the power of petrification.

Some species cursed humans to turn them to stone and then decorated or ate them.

But had there ever been a serpent that turned itself to stone to help humans?

“Let’s move, Grandel. The water’s comin’. There’s no time.”

Donnino hoisted the dumbfounded Grandel once again and rushed for the exterior wall entrance.

The courtyard filled with water, and the black creatures began to vanish like they were melting.

Soon, monsters would be born anew in the gentle light.

It was morning, a sight Grandel had seen many times with the lamia.

The dawning sun hadn’t yet reached the courtyard surrounded by the outer wall, but the light brightening the sky reflected off the dense fog, and for a moment, this confined world sparkled white, as though the night’s corruption had been purified.

The fog changed into water, which quietly began to fill the world and engulf everything.

Within that silent ocean, the lamia, now stone and still wrapped around the ebon cavalry, stood in silence.

06

“No time to wallow in sentimentality. We gotta retreat before the Necklace wakes up!”

At Donnino’s command, Mariela and the rest left the entrance and rushed into the hallway. Grandel and Yuric remained quiet. Their thoughts were elsewhere for a little while.

The group somehow made it back to the first level of the southeast tower and took a deep breath in the brief moment of safety.

“Thank goodness. We saved Mr. Grandel…”

Mariela was happy at the man’s safe return, but Grandel looked unwell. While the potion he’d imbibed earlier had helped, his weakened body wasn’t back to normal, and he seemed unable to completely absorb the fact that the lamia, a monster, had sacrificed herself to save him.

They’d confirmed Edgan was uninjured, but he seemed to have lost almost all his memories. Even so, Edgan was still Edgan, and he somehow looked like he was having fun, so his situation didn’t seem serious. But the fact that he’d forgotten human language and turned into a monkey wasn’t a predicament that could be overlooked. What’s more…

“That tornado… That was Franz,” Yuric muttered as she stared northwest.

The roar that seemed to summon the tornado wasn’t that of a person.

What in the world had happened to Franz?

Even Edgan, an A-Ranker with high attack power, had lost himself and become apelike. Franz may have forgotten even more than Edgan, so what remained of him?

“We can’t leave those two the way they are.”

They had to get the pair’s memories back, even if it was just a few.

“Right. Shall we split into two groups here? The young lady and Yuric, and Grandel and I. We’ll go help those guys,” Donnino proposed.

But Mariela knew. She’d realized by now the conditions for regaining memories lost here.

The pair couldn’t regain recollections at the same time.

Edgan, or Franz? While they were helping one, what would befall the other?

“I’m headin’ out to help Franz by myself… Sorry, Mariela.” Yuric’s words were neither a proposal nor a request, but a decision. She’d probably long since prepared herself. Even though they were in the middle of a job, Yuric decided to help Franz.

“We’ll go together, Yuric. Maybe I’ll get in the way, but surely I can also help.” Mariela grasped the other girl’s hand.

“Thanks, Mariela. But this is our problem. I can’t put ya in danger for my own convenience in the middle of a job.”

As a Black Iron Freight Corps member, Yuric turned Mariela down, saying she couldn’t drag a client into peril.

“What’re you talking about?! I can’t just ignore this. We’re friends, aren’t we?!”

If it was a question of danger, Mariela had already been exposed to plenty of that. More often than not, it was Mariela who led others into risky situations. In response, Yuric looked at her blankly.

“……Friends?”

“……Huh? Am I wrong?”

Could it have been just Mariela who thought they were that close?

As the tense atmosphere softened into a more complex feeling, Mariela’s thoughts revolved at high speed.

Mariela knew hardly anything about Yuric and Franz. She’d spent a short time with them since she’d first met the Black Iron Freight Corps in the Labyrinth City, and she’d gotten a peek at their memories in this world. That was all.

In particular, Franz’s memories had been of his daily life with Yuric in the imperial capital, and Mariela couldn’t even guess how that whirlwind from before was connected to him. All Mariela could imagine was what Yuric thought of Franz in that state.

But Mariela felt that knowing someone well might not be necessary.

The time she’d spent with Yuric wandering around in this world of water hadn’t been so bad. If it weren’t for the danger, she probably would have even thought it was fun. Even if she didn’t know her companion well, and they didn’t have anything in common, being together was kind of enjoyable. While living in the Labyrinth City, Mariela had come to know the concept of getting along with such companions.

“If you have one meal with someone, you’re already friends.”

Mariela’s master had once said something like that, but was that actually a rule she’d come up with herself?

Mariela somehow grew a bit embarrassed in the ensuing silence and stole a glance at Yuric. Yuric, too, seemed bashful as she answered in a low voice, “You’re not wrong.”

“I’m so glad…”

Since there had been a strange pause, Mariela thought she’d made a slightly embarrassing mistake.

“…I’m not.”

Yuric pouted very slightly, and when Mariela looked where she was glancing, she saw Donnino and Grandel, the two middle-aged men, watching the friendship drama between the two girls with uncomfortably warm smiles.

It was just a bit before sundown when Mariela and Yuric, who had relied on those two middle-aged men and Ape-gan—no, Edgan—reached the third-floor entry to the southwest tower through the third-level hallway.

Mariela had wanted to sleep a little on the way and learn something about the ebon cavalry through a memory, but healing Grandel with potions and replenishing fire bottles took longer than she’d expected.

“Mariela, we’re goin’ to run at full speed. Hold on tight.”

“Okay, got it!”

When night came, Mariela and Yuric traveled on Koo up to the southwest tower’s fourth floor and headed for the northwest tower via the outer wall.

Up to this point, the northwest tower’s vicinity had been brimming with those inky memory stealers. However, there were surprisingly few now, and Mariela and Yuric were able to approach the tower without effort.

Mariela had an uncomfortable hunch. Although they progressed smoothly, uneasiness gnawed at her heart.

How many times had they seen this landscape?

The light of the torches filtering from the tower dimly defined the outline of the outer wall in the night.

What crawled along that dim, outer barricade as though they were about to swallow even the light itself were monsters blacker than night. The things seemed to be closing in like a tide that filled the other side of the outer wall.

Every now and then, a plume of flame erupted on the largely collapsed east side of the outer wall. Maybe Edgan, or Donnino and Grandel, who had hastened there, were using fire bottles.

As though in concord with that, what lay just a little before the northwest tower Mariela and Yuric were heading for was…

“Franz!!!” Yuric exclaimed.

Did the silhouette that emerged from the darkness truly look like Franz to her?

The fists flying out from the figure in a doubled-over posture moved so fast, Mariela couldn’t perceive them. The barehanded attacks tore the black monsters to pieces. The leaps that propelled the person were far quicker than those of any adventurer Mariela knew.

Since he was so far away, it was all Mariela could do not to lose sight of him. The man’s agile, rugged, powerful movements seemed more appropriate for a beast. To Mariela, they appeared beyond what any human should have been capable of.

Perhaps Franz had heard Yuric’s voice, as his head turned in their direction. She couldn’t confirm the face from far away, but she had a feeling she was gazing at something unfamiliar.

From behind him, inky creatures rushed at Franz like a tsunami to crush him.

“Franz, watch out!!!” Yuric screamed as loud as she could. There came a whirlwind that swept away the monsters and an inhuman roar that drowned out Yuric’s voice.

“Rooooooar, graaaaaah!”

“Franz! Franz!”

“Yuric! It’s too dangerous!”

Mariela desperately stopped Yuric, who looked like she was about to leap down from the raptor and break into a run.

“Let go, Mariela! Franz is…!!!”

Mariela clung to Yuric to try and stop her. The raptor’s rider was no longer leading him, and as soon as he slowed down in apparent bewilderment, a great number of tornadoes centered on Franz swept both the raptor and the girls into the air.

“Aaah!”

Below, Mariela could spy what lay beyond the outer wall. A dark path split the forest, stretching out like an endless plain, and it led to the temple.

There was an obsidian torrent of catastrophe surging toward the temple through gaps in the broken outer wall.

It lumbered toward the helpless Mariela and Yuric like a living creature, and at the moment when it seemed the sinister turbid waters would engulf them, Mariela realized she was frightened.

It wasn’t the terror of preparing to die when facing monsters, but rather a fear of clammy entwinement, of her life being gnawed at from the inside, of being forced into an existence worse than death.

Mariela felt the jet-blackness streaming in her direction like a wild river was a human heart distorted with anger, pain, sorrow, anguish, tyranny, hate, lunacy, and desire.

The twisted ebon current undulated.

The mass of black monsters gradually rose to swallow Mariela and Yuric all at once.

Hungry to savor another’s misfortune, black arms stretched toward the two to taste and deplete their joy and sorrow and all the memories they held in their hearts, the memories that made them who they were.

“I’m scared, I’m scared, I’m scared. Help me, help me… Sieg!!!”

In that instant, the sky and the earth shook as though the world were transforming.

Dazzling light abruptly spelled the end of the night that seemed to have just begun.

Pure water flooded the world, and the rapids washed away the black monsters. Mariela and Yuric felt like something was holding onto them as everything else shook violently.

Amid the dizzying metamorphosis was Yuric mumbling “Franz…” and a seventh tower appearing in the broken northern outer wall as if to plug it up.

…You’re late.

Although Mariela felt a touch of bitterness, she was relieved. She yielded her consciousness to someone’s memory streaming into her.

07

The village elder had said this place was once a verdant land.

A man, the last one born in this dry land, didn’t know how far back in the distant past that was.

An endless horizon interweaving blue sky and scorched earth.

That seemed to be the state of the world the man knew.

When was the last time it had rained?

The man sowed seeds in the parched earth again today.

He made scratches in the dirt and dripped his own blood there.

“Surfeit Heal.”

Through healing magic that caused cells to excessively propagate, the blood spilled on the ground multiplied, decomposed, and changed into soil that brought a little blessing to the plants.

The sown seeds grew literally from the man’s blood and bore the tiniest bit of fruit.

“This place, too, will soon be swallowed by the desert…”

All land in the surrounding area was slowly becoming a red desert.

Before long, the ground here would turn to sand.

The fruits on the crops were thin, and no matter how much one planted, the plants wouldn’t so much as sprout unless you put magical power into them.

It was now only a matter of time before the tribe of men returned to the parched earth.

“How long will we cling to this land? This place has been abandoned, and we have been forsaken.”

The elders only shook their heads feebly at the man’s words.

“If that’s the case, we have committed some kind of wrongdoing, and this is our punishment. Our flesh sprouted in this land, and our lives sprang forth from the earth. Our lot is to die in obscurity here. Everything is as the water spirit who governs this ley line wills it.”

The tribe of men descended from water dragons had their blood to thank for their long lives and their tenacity.

They enriched the barren land that ordinary creatures couldn’t live on and survived off meager nourishment using blood and magical power.

The red desert was their gravestone.

They slowly starved, died, dried up, and returned to the sands.

This was the final land of the tribe bound by the chains of their faith.

It was said that the man’s clan used to worship the water spirit governing this ley line and received its divine protection in return.

The youngest man in the tribe hadn’t been told about when the water spirit disappeared.

No one in the clan knew why or where the spirit who had governed the land and the people disappeared.

The tribe clung to this barren earth, believing the spirit would return someday, and now they merely awaited their end.

The frail women had already died out, and the man who was last to be born had no one to live with besides the decaying old men.

“The red desert is proof of our tribe’s blood. Our desire is to return to the earth here. But, young man, you should depart from this place. The water spirit will surely forgive you, the one born last.”

After bidding farewell to the final elder who returned to the earth, the man left the red desert behind.

He walked and walked, yet the unchanging view continued.

The cloudless bright blue sky was probably far more azure and clear than the sea he’d heard about in tales.

The man recalled the fairy tale about how the unobstructed blue sky was a cruel sun god’s garments.

The deity had grown angry and burned the land to nothing because it stained the hem of his beautiful blue attire.

In this world, the moon goddess, who ruled over death, was far gentler than the sun.

With enough of a chill to freeze you, she granted you eternal sleep, release from the hardship known as life.

Just when the man began to believe that the divine protection of the water spirit was truly gone forever, and that this parched land and cruel sky were all there was, he saw a change in the distant horizon.

Mountains.

In the far-off mountain range, sand, not water, flowed like a river from between the peaks and into the desert. However, the man’s energy returned at the sight of the clouds drifting in the sky above them.

There were clouds. In other words, rain fell in those mountains.

The man no longer recalled how long he’d been traveling. Regardless, he moved forward, crossing arid, rocky mountains and pushing through a dry lake of salt as it rustled at his feet. The pool of salt was white and bone-dry. No vegetation grew around it, but water soon gushed forth when he dug into it. The water was briny at that point and couldn’t be drunk, but it evaporated in the heat of the day and changed into cool, fresh water at night.

It was indeed a miracle that the man who followed the shadows the clouds cast and ate sparsely growing herbs and beasts running among the rocks as he roamed found his way to a river. He followed the winding thing, clouded with fine sand, upstream, and he grasped the truth of his birthplace when he finally reached its source.

The one who dwelled in the headwaters was the water spirit his tribe had longed after.

The moment they met, the man knew the spirit was the focus of the faith engraved in his own blood.

“O water spirit, pure, loving master and origin of life, why did you abandon us? Please, heal our land with your mighty power once more.”

After finally finding the life giver, it was all he could do to ask it to restore the land.

—Descendant of water, our youngest child. You have done well to reach this place after all your suffering. However, I am not the water spirit you and your people know.—

This creature told the man that it had no connection to him and that the one who had protected his birthplace disappeared a very long time ago.

—We are born, and we disappear. Our transitions are not fixed. I was born in this source and am merely one spirit who exists for a brief time. A change occurred in the ley line in your land once, did it not? When one considers the timeline of the world, it is not an unusual occurrence. When the flow of a ley line changes, spirits lose their power. Even water will fade away.—

“Then where did our water spirit go? How will it restore our land?”

—The spirit of that land no longer exists in the world. Even people are born and eventually die, do they not? This is no different. Human child descended from water, the water in this place, too, will soon fade. Go, seek water. Even if there is no spirit, the kindness of water will never run dry.—

There was a drought in the land that had led to the slow death of the man’s tribe.

And not due to any wrongdoing they had committed. It wasn’t a punishment or anything of the sort.

The ley-line change was simply a natural disaster, no different from an earthquake or a storm, that caused the land to wither.

“If so, why were my people such prisoners in that land? We were abandoned and forgotten, yet what is this feeling that consumes my heart…?”

The man’s journey wasn’t over.

This was a distant memory engraved in blood…

08

“It seems the blood of dragons flows within me,” Franz told Mariela and Yuric after he awoke.

The memory of a man who sought the water spirit. Franz explained it was his ancestor’s memory, engraved into his blood. Franz’s face was hidden by the hood worn low over his eyes and couldn’t be clearly seen, but the little bit that was visible was covered in blue scales down to the bottom of his neck. The tips of his boots had torn, and sharp talons extended from them. Sharp claws on fingers covered in scales had cut through his armored gloves.

Most likely, Franz had lost too many of his own recollections, and his dragon blood had run rampant.

“Strangely, my memories of my time with Yuric in the imperial capital remained. So I think I never completely lost my self.”

Franz’s recollections that remained were the ones he recovered when Yuric and Mariela saw him a few days ago. Apparently, once you regained a memory, you wouldn’t lose it again. If they hadn’t visited the northwest tower back then, Franz might have wholly transformed into a dragon.

Perhaps due to the effects of his metamorphosis, Franz was able to spend a long time underwater, and apparently, he had brought Mariela and the others, who were caught up in the tornado, to the northwest tower. The salamander, who had been clinging to Mariela’s shoulder, may have crawled into her cloak, since it looked unharmed as it clambered up the raptor Koo.

“Franz, are ya all right?”

The worried Yuric nestled up to Franz without showing the slightest fear of his scaly face or sharp claws. Mariela felt this wasn’t her usual boyish appearance, but that of a mature girl.

“Sorry I made you worry, Yuric. I’m a little confused, maybe due to remembering past events all at once, but I’m all right now.”

Mariela and Yuric had brought Franz’s memory stones, and Franz himself seemed to have collected some, too. He probably hadn’t regained all he had lost, but he seemed to be far more like himself than he had been before.

“Will your appearance…never go back to the way it was…?” Mariela asked timidly.

Yuric didn’t seem to mind at all, but the limbs that had exceeded human size and the face that most likely had a different silhouette now would probably make it difficult for him to live in the imperial capital or the Labyrinth City.

“I think it’s a temporary thing. My demi-dragon ancestor didn’t look like this. However, this isn’t without benefit. It’s granted me some offensive abilities. It would probably be better to stay like this for the time being.”

Franz seemed to think he could return to normal, and Mariela recalled the dream she’d had not long ago.

The recollections of Franz that Mariela had gotten a glimpse of weren’t just those of his ancestor.

It was probably a case of genetic throwback. None of Franz’s forebears had scales. At least, there’d been no mention of it in his family’s oral history.

Franz’s father loved his son’s aptitude for healing magic, but his mother shunned him as a “lizard boy.” The memories Mariela witnessed had included a heartbreaking one of a young boy who begged for his mother’s love by whittling down his own face with an edged tool and regenerating it with magic.

Surfeit Heal wasn’t merely healing magic. This unique spell was innate to the blood of demi-dragons, and it reflected the will of the practitioner when it restored the subject. Of course, since that wasn’t his natural form, the skin the young Franz generated by carving up his own face grew back all its scales within a few weeks due to his body’s tenacious recovery abilities.

I wonder if Yuric saw Franz’s memories…

It was probably natural for a man who grew up being despised as a “lizard” to be comfortable living with a girl who loved beasts more than people.

Mariela couldn’t guess from the way Yuric nestled close to Franz whether she had seen Franz’s past.

Maybe Franz’s history doesn’t matter to Yuric.

If it was necessary, the pair would discuss it, because they lived together. Even Mariela had had that sort of experience.

“Even so…”

Franz had saved them after regaining a bit of his sanity, but what had sparked that? And why had dawn arrived so suddenly?

Mariela turned her gaze away from the endlessly flirting Yuric and Franz and walked toward a window.

Maybe…

She had a guess. That said, just how many days had it been?

It was quite likely the flow of time differed between here and the real world, but that sort of thing was irrelevant. If feelings could be resolved with logic, surely the world would be forever peaceful and boring.

“There it is, a seventh.”

The passage connecting east and west on the north side had largely collapsed along with the wall and cut off the route. When night came, the black monsters would close in like an avalanche from there, but a new tower stood in the middle of the collapsed outer wall.

After glancing at Franz and Yuric in their own little world, Mariela faced the seventh tower and thought to herself, Maybe I’ll listen to his explanation now…

What had happened to Mariela’s extreme stupidity back when she had rushed out of Sunlight’s Canopy? Was the unsociable Yuric’s lovey-dovey behavior affecting her?