#08.

A door opened, and footfalls hovered in the quiet room. Would it have been the same color had a demon had eyes? A guy with the diabolic red eyes gazed at the old man sitting upright in front of him. The old man's eyes were also fixed squarely at the other guy's bewitching ones. He looked to be over 70, but was still full of vim. After a long stare down in silence, he broke the ice first.

"You did what wasn't necessary."

"What is necessary and what isn't depends on the individual, don't you think?"

"Things will start soon. You don't have to make a fuss before that."

"What you are worried about won't happen just because I paid a visit to the knightage in a small kingdom."

The grey-haired old man in a plain black chair, the Finance Minister of Perriun Duke Guillermo Raspalmas, looked up at the guy standing right in front of him. The man helping his ridiculous operation to end this world. Even he did not know where his huge hatred had come from and how it had grown this big. And that is, even though he had got entangled in such a tragic story with his father and ended up facing catastrophe. He asked the man about the result of the visit.

"Well, how did it go?"

"Successful. I'll settle it today."

"Settle it… that's a good word."

"No one knows how it will play out yet."

"Fair enough. Do as you wish and get it over with. Razen's death has finally been declared. It will be the cue to world war."

"Don't worry. We are fully ready."

Rorens replied with his usual face. Guillermo rose to his feet and pushed his back.

"I wanna see it as well. See whatever the hell that 'channeling' means."

‎

The two entered a somber room. Somber, but there were still mysterious lights filling the room and allowing visitors to discern what were around them. In the middle of the room were a carpet with unknown patterns, and faint candles put in straight lines beside the carpet. A big wooden table with a variety of foods on it was set at the far side of the room, and behind it was something rectangular filled fully with mysterious letters. While curiously looking around the room, Guillermo's eyes were fixed at one spot. There was a young girl sitting right at the center of the room. She was wearing a necklace of the design he had never seen before, and long loose clothes with flower patterns printed on them. Her hairs, which would have looked natural had it been tied back, were let down and tidily laid on her back for a ritual. Fair skin was making a contrast against her obsidian-like inky hair.

"It's Stacey."

Introducing her shortly to Guillermo, Rorens recalled the moment he had abducted her. Earthquake had hit, and he had collapsed once more. Stacey had fled the scene, and he had had to go out of his way to wipe out the whole Ensis Knights in the end. The reason why he had brought Stacey here despite all those hassles was simple. The real reason why he had been traumatized by an earthquake. And the real truth of the incident at the very day. That's all Rorens wanted. Back in the peaceful days when he had been training his swordsmanship in the grand royal palace in Cheheran, there had been an incident which had turned his whole life upside down, and he had wound up pushed into an unwanted orbit and had come this far. It was impossible to go back to where he had been. All he could do was just to go forward and see where this channeling would take him at the end of the road.

"Are you ready?"

Rorens asked Stacey with a low tone. She did not answer. She was also a victim of a twisted fate, which did not even leave her any option but to follow the order of the man who had murdered her parents. Biting her lips, she had accepted his suggestion under the condition that she would be brought to Mikael Sepavile once she succeeded in channeling. Her parents were also the ones from the outside world. Mikael Sepavile had offered he would bring her back to her 'hometown' with his ability, and it had managed to open her mind, which would have been otherwise closed to anything else. After a long silence, she looked up at Rorens.

"No one can get in or out of this channeling chamber during the ritual. You should strictly forbid anyone from entering the room."

"By all means."

"As soon as I get finished, I will open the door and let you in."

She hesitated a little bit after that, but continued soon.

"You should acknowledge that how long the channeling can last and how well the trait of an original spirit can be kept depend on a spirit medium's ability. I'm still immature as a medium. Even if I succeeded, I wouldn't be able to keep it long enough. And if his spiritual power were to be stronger than mine, my own spirit would be forced off the body for a certain time."

"What do you mean by that?"

"There's a possibility that I might not be able to control the channeled spirit. In that case, my body possessed by that spirit would move as it wants regardless of my own will. Even if that spirit tried to harm you, it would not have anything to do with me."

"Don't worry about it, I understand."

That was Rorens' answer to 'even if you get killed, keep the promise'. With her tightly closed lips, Stacey looked down at the front again. Guillermo and Rorens went out of the room as it was almost time.

"She came from the outside world… how come?" That was quite a fair question for Guillermo.

"Channeling is definitely not a product of this world in the first place. It's extremely mysterious and secretive. I don't know how it works, but it's certain that she is a stranger."

"If you say so. After this, what are you gonna do?"

"…" Rorens stared at Guillermo for a while before he replied.

"Don't be ridiculous. Both you and I will have to pay the price for what we've done."

"…"

Without answering, Guillermo looked at the channeling chamber's door shut tight. He bit his lips.

It was about to start.

‎

The atmosphere of Perriun kingdom's palace had become surprisingly chilly after a sudden declaration of Razen emperor's death. Even corrupted officials bleeding commoners dry night and day were lying low like a rabbit in front of a wolf. One can only go corrupted when they have peace of mind, so who the hell would be so empty-minded to sit around and embezzle pennies when the whole kingdom could be blown away by imminent World War? They did not want to flee the kingdom and leave everything they had earned through astronomical bribery and lobbies behind either, so they could not do anything but to observe how things were developing. The extremely tense atmosphere where everyone would go hide under a desk upon one loud sneezing. No one was behaving normally in that threatening mood, but the master of Hellon Knights, Rose Selion, was the one and only exception.

"Haaaaaaa, Sir Louis. My immaculate skin became so rough recently. It makes me so worried."

"…"

Being dumbfounded for a while, Louis retorted to Rose sitting in a big couch and yawning loudly next to him.

"Aaa, is that right? It's natural because the season is changing. That's really a big problem."

"…Hey, Sir Rose. Don't you have anything else to worry about other than your skin care?"

Sir Illein, holding a cup as big as his head, scowled at Rose and sighed deeply. Due to the ambience of Perriun, all of Hellon Knights' general duties had been canceled and all knightage members were standing by in the headquarters. Seeing their own master just dilly-dallying and yawning big on the couch while everyone else was behaving like people in a funeral, the whole Hellon Knights looking at Rose had to suppress their urge to turn that goddamn couch upside down.

"Hhhhhhmm, let me see."

Rose stretched his limbs and blinked bleary eyes a few times. Then he suddenly opened them widely like something came to his mind.

"Ah! Come to think of it, The International Trade department declared that they won't import peanuts from now on! We will have to smuggle even peanuts now?! What is wrong with this world?!"

"Aaaaa, that is a really serious problem. The bad law that needs to be condemned by peanut manias!"

Sir Louis and Illein tapped their brows and shook heads at the same time thinking either Rose must be living in another dimension alone, or just indifferent to the rise and fall of the planet earth. Applauding his amazing apathy, Louis asked.

"Umm… look, think carefully if you really don't have any other problems except your skin or peanut. Like war. You really don't care whether this country goes to hell or not as long as you can eat peanuts and moisten your skin? Huh?!"

Then Rose gazed at Louis with a thin smile in his eyes. It was like he was looking at his pet.

"Hehe, Sir Louis. Are you worried if I'd get hurt during war?"

"Worried my butt!"

When Louis clenched his fists over that nonsense, Rose shook his head with a bitter smile.

"But Sir Louis, you don't need to worry about me. I'll be okay even if war happens."

"You will be okay? How come?"

"Because I've already packed up…. Arghhhhhhh!!!! You hit me again! Why do you persecute me all the time ----!"

Getting smacked in the head by Illein, Rose sprang to his feet with tears in his eyes. But he only had to see Illein's freezing scowl.

"You dummy! Aren't you the master of a knightage after all? People would be so happy if they knew the master of Hellon Knights packed his suitcase first thing in the morning before anyone else, huh? They are counting on us without any knowledge of what's going on, but what the hell's wrong with this palace?!"

"P, please get ahold of yourself…

Illein's telling-off made Rose sit down again with his one hand on the other in front of him. But in fact, even the palace did not know enough about the sudden announcement of the emperor's death. It was not only Perriun kingdom, but even Zenoa and Croa kingdoms as well, which were said to be the second most powerful countries following Cheheran. That meant the empire had only revealed the death itself, while strictly concealing when, how, and why. The most plausible guess was Cheheran had been intentionally hiding them, but still no one could be certain of it.

"Sir Rose. How's Ensis Knights doing now?"

It was Sir Neon, who was flipping his sword up and down in the living room. He was the one that had been admitted among other knights to be the best swordsman in Hellon Knights, except Rose Selion. Despite a freewheeling vibe of the knightage, he was always polite and used an honorific title to everyone.

"Ah, Well…"

After a little hesitation, Rose grinned and answered him.

"We are gonna have to pray for them."

There would not be any other words more proper to Ensis Knights. In fact, the injuries of the deputy master Aurelio and the master Kiriyan were not as critical as it had been known to be. Especially for Kiriyan, the stab wound on his shoulder would have been enough to make other people be on the brink of death from excessive bleeding, but all Hellon Knights sighed with relief upon the news that he had gathered himself up after just three days in the hospital. But still, Stacey, who had been taken by Rorens Selion, was the elephant in the room. Though none of them was privy to the detail apart from Rose, at least they all prayed that everything would play out in a right way in the end.

"Ah? Sir Kiriyan?"

At that moment, Rose turned his round eyes to the door, sitting right up from the couch.

"…Why on earth is that jerk looking for our silver knight now? Did he dream in that short time?"

Right after Louis had grumbled, the door snapped open and the man with freezing navy-colored eyes walked in throwing his cape back. Louis looked at Rose with admiration.

"Rose? Do you happen to have clairvoyance?"

"Ehem! This is the fruit of my blood, sweat and tears -----!"

"…Phew, whatever. By the way, have you already been discharged, Sir Kiriyan?"

Rose looked at Kiriyan, who still had the bandages on his wounds that had not been fully recovered yet. Kiriyan went straight to the point as always.

"Anything to report?"

"Hehe, report?"

Kiriyan had to suppress his impulse to bury Rose, who was just wagging his tail in front of him with a happy smile. He snapped at Rose.

"Argh! While Ensis Knights was empty, things that we should've processed must've been passed over to yo... never mind."

Kiriyan bit his lips in front of Rose's innocent face that was saying like 'I have no thoughts in my head'.

"The movements of the empire have become suspicious recently. You guys are affiliated to Croa kingdom's Curia, but also the knightage of Perriun for now. Keep a low profile and stay at your posts."

Some Hellon Knights that had not understood Kiriyan at first showed confused looks, but nodded shortly. That made it clear that Cheheran had hidden their emperor's decease deliberately. Otherwise, they would not have made any move earlier than Zenoa or Croa kingdom. When he was about to step out of the door after delivering the order, he stopped and asked Rose.

"Rose. Has Duke Guillermo been off to somewhere?"

"Eh? Duke? I don't have any idea -----."

Kiriyan gazed at Rose, still smiling with his eyes. Hellon Knights were puzzled by his weird behavior for a while, but did not care much about it when he went out of the room.

"Now that he mentioned it, where is Duke Guillermo? I think I haven't seen him since a few days ago."

"This is the worst timing to not have him. Without Duke, our palace is just equal to nothing."

Illein said with a serious tone. It was not an exaggeration that Duke Guillermo had taken responsibility for and taken care of all sorts of matters of the kingdom, which was the reason why the administration department of a tiny kingdom like Perriun had been frantically busy. Also, AWOL of the highest administrative officer of the palace in a quasi-state of war alone would naturally result in the halt in all remaining officers' duties. (Not that it had been any different when he had been present.) Illein glanced at Rose out of the corner of his eye. He may have wanted Rose to say anything about that 'unexpected situation', but it only went in vain as Rose stretched his body saying 'migrating birds are meant to come back when season changes -----' with a happy-go-lucky attitude. He must have been dragged to prison for 'insult to the royal' had things been normal.

"…You just don't have a shred of common sense."

After a big sigh from Louis, all Hellon Knights either went back to their rooms or started maintaining their swords under the heavy ambience. No one could even guess the reason behind all that bizarre situation, but they could not just keep staying there and doing nothing. Just like that, the small, remote kingdom Perriun was also quietly preparing itself for jumping in the current of an enormous river that had started flowing slowly.

‎

Apart from the tension lingering in the air, the sky was still blue with a gentle breeze. Palmasion, the headquarters of Ensis Knights stained with the smell of leather and blood, was no exception. There were two knights on duty with huge spears in their hands, pinching their own cheeks to keep their sleepy eyes open. Could even the well-trained guardians of Perriun Kingdom not win against the drowsiness in the warm sunlight of the afternoon? At that moment, one knight slapped the other knight in the back of his head, which had been nodding from sleepiness.

*𝘉𝘢𝘮!*

Ignoring the surprised and mad look on his face, the one who hit the other looked sideways at the front without a word. The other grumbled, only to gasp and stand at attention with the spear close to his side when he also looked at the front. A man who had already walked up towards them put his hands on their shoulders.

"How have you been?"

"Fine, Sir! It's good to see you again."

"Um, thanks. By the way, I saw you'd been looking at the ground, did you find a penny?"

The guy's joke made the knight blushed. He laughed lightly.

"I cannot let it slide due to the current circumstance. Be careful from now on. Has there been anything special while I was gone?"

"Nothing! After the declaration of the emperor's death, everything we are working on now is in relation to it."

"No wonder. Keep up the good work until your shifts end. Is the master inside?"

"Sir Kiriyan? He's gone to the training ground, as far as I know."

"What? Training ground? He must not have fully recovered yet…"

"Well, we thought so too, but…." The knights looked at each other and scratched their heads.

"Anyway, all right."

Flipping his cape to the back, the man turned around and walked towards the training ground. The knights exchanged eye signals and called the laborer cleaning the front yard of Palmasion.

"Go inside and tell other guys to clean the deputy master's office. It must be spotless."

"Yes? Ah! You got it!"

Surprised by the word 'deputy master', the laborer threw his broom to the corner and started running to the headquarters building.

It was the return of the deputy master of Ensis Knights, Aurelio, right next to Kiriyan.

‎

‎When he arrived at the training ground with his bandaged left arm and hand covered under the cape, he could already tell even before he went inside that Kiriyan had been up to his training. There were so many girls, gals and even wives sticking on the windows as if there had been a performance of a famous actor. That was one hell of a scene. Thinking his superior was a 'sinful' man, Aurelio sneaked in through the back door. All of that was only because of the good-looking, young face, and on top of that a super good guitar player, Kiriyan. (But Kiriyan was not interested in women at all.)

Due to its nature, the training ground was not to be heated in winter, nor to be cooled in summer. As for that particular day, it was quite hot, but Kiriyan was not the man who would care about such a thing. On the ground was Kiriyan alone, as always. Moreover, he was totally immersed in practicing like he did not mind those hot ogles at all in that sweltering place. With two swords.

'…Um? 'Two' swords…?'

Aurelio walked up to Kiriyan carefully. The look of Kiriyan embroidering the air with his two gliding swords was too serene, making it surreal even though Aurelio was watching him. It was like he had become a sharp blade himself. After a while, he finally stopped his move and opened his eyes.

"Aurelio. You are out."

Kiriyan made a faint smile, which caused the women's shouting from the outside. Although his smile would make him look even nicer, Kiriyan seldom did so. Realizing it again, Aurelio bent his head.

"The deputy master of Ensis Knights Aurelio Evanstein, reporting for duty."

After the terse report, he asked Kiriyan looking at his hands.

"Uh, by the way, did you use two swords originally?"

"No."

Resting his body, Kiriyan shook his head. The ground beneath him was soaked by his sweat. Aurelio asked why Kiriyan had had to go out of his way and practiced dual wielding with that much of an effort. Then Kiriyan undid the top button of his shirt and answered as if he was talking to himself.

"A guy that I'd have to beat from now on uses this swordsmanship… so I figured I'd better get used to it."

"…I see."

Analyzing the opponent's swordsmanship thoroughly to surpass it. In fact, only few in the whole world would be able to overwhelm the silver knight Kiriyan in a one-handed sword fight. However, dual wielding was a different story. Aurelio knew too well who that 'opponent' Kiriyan should win from now on was. That must have been why he was training that much even though he already had enviable swordsmanship. Aurelio brought up that person's name, who was also the reason why he had come all the way to see Kiriyan.

"Is it… because of Rorens Selion?"

"…"

Kiriyan frowned without a single word. A part of the childhood erased in his memory. He had lost the girl he had loved, Dhalia, and had run away from that reality with the help of Reminiscence. After that, he had enlisted in Ensis Knights and built his strength hoping such a thing would never happen again, but all those efforts had gone in vain. The sword he had held to protect people precious to him had not functioned as he had wished. He thought of Stacey. The reason why he had let her stay in Palmasion was not just because she was the witness of Cellen arson incident, but because he had felt he must protect her. Without knowing Kiriyan's complicated mind, Aurelio continued.

"What are you going to do for Stacey?"

"What do you mean? Nothing is certain yet. We don't even know whether she is still alive."

"That's true, but…"

"For the time being, it's a personal matter. I will find her for sure, but not now. We've got a report that small kingdoms under Cheheran have all been sending military forces to Shadow Pain."

"Ah, I heard it on my way here as well."

"We should ready ourselves, too. I don't know what they've got up their sleeves, but if Cheheran were to wage war, their first target must be Perriun. They would need to secure the 'routes' to the other countries first."

"But that's not gonna go as they wish. Both Zenoa and Croa will be on our side."

"They wouldn't want the gateway to be open either, so that makes sense, but how fast they make their moves would be important. We won't be able to stop them just with Ensis and Hellon Knights. We'll have to finish the talk while we can still hold up."

"But… I heard Duke Guillermo is out of office now."

Kiriyan knitted his eyebrows. The palace officers of Perriun were not nearly competent enough. Although there were still several heads of their own departments present at the moment, it was the time that they really needed the highest rank officer, Finance Minister Duke Guillermo. Without his drive, it would be very hard to win Zenoa and Croa over in time to alleviate Cheheran's threat.

"There's no news as to his whereabouts… it is unprecedented."

Aurelio looked at Kiriyan. Though he knew there was no answer, he just wanted to let it out. Perriun's armed force excluding the two knightages did not even run to 200,000. Cheheran would come south with over a million without a doubt, and Perriun desperately needed the support from Zenoa's Titan and Croa's Signus armed forces. It was so unlucky for Perriun to be directly sharing the border line with Cheheran.

"Why would Duke disappear like this? And I knew our kingdom was lax, but they don't even care about their missing Archduke? All of this doesn't really make sense."

"I don't believe he's been abducted or something… but we need to find him first. I mean, even by ourselves."

"Definitely. Tell our guys to investigate, not only his whereabouts but the reason as well. I have a very bad feeling about this."

Aurelio showed a puzzled look on his face. Kiriyan put his swords back to the sheaths and continued.

"Cellen arson incident, Rorens Selion, Stacey, the death of Razen emperor, war… once these pieces are put together as one, I think what awaits us will be long darkness."

"…"

"The world may be facing a big change. The time before a new era is always dusky. Sometimes, I want to let myself just float along this flow without any thought as Kiriyan Masis, not as the master of Ensis Knights. It would be quite nice, I think."

Aurelio answered Kiriyan's monologue with his own monologue.

'Agreed.'

‎

"…"

It would probably be the first time for him to be surprised this much. Trained to be cold-headed and collected in any kind of situation, Rorens Selion had experienced few emotional changes in his life, let alone surprised. Of course, what had formed that personality were the extreme swordsmanship training he had taken by force when he had been Rorens Sielon and the earthquake incident, which had made him forget the meaning of happiness and sadness. However, he could not even close his mouth from a sudden turbulence of his emotion, and what had happened in front of him.

He silently stared at the man standing on the other side of the door. No, he was a man, but not at the same time. The length of hairs and the size of breast were proving that 'it' was a woman, but the voice and the height were still those of men's. To put it simply, it was really an unearthly phenomenon. And Rorens Selion knew only one person who had almost the same face with that grotesque being. His mouth opened slowly.

"…Father."

"Rorens."

Razen Sielon, the soul drawn back to Stacey's body by her channeling act. The eighth emperor of Cheheran empire called his bastard's name with a low voice. All these things were just like lies and dreams, but it was the reality happening right in front of his own eyes.

"…It's been a long time."

Trying to keep himself together, Rorens said to the emperor's soul. Although there were still vestiges of Stacey, it was almost a perfect reproduction of Razen's appearance. Rorens recalled what Stacey had said prior to the channeling. Given the soul preserved the emperor's strong ego, it was not very surprising that Stacey had lost the control of her body to it temporarily. Razen's eyes stopped at Guillermo standing next to Rorens. Even the man of blood-and-iron was not holding back his astonishment for this situation.

"Razen? Is it you?"

"Yes. Long time, Guillermo. You still alive?"

"Of course. You live and learn. I didn't even imagine we were gonna meet again like this."

"Same here."

Razen stared at the two men standing in front of him through his blurry vision. To him, though his past life as the emperor of the biggest and strongest empire in the continent had been luxurious and fulfilling, it still contained more uncomfortable memories that he did not want to remember. All of them had become the past anyway, but still he did not wish to stay on this side of the world any longer. He couldn't, even if he had wanted to.

"The one who called me… should be you. Rorens."

Rorens gave him a nod instead of an answer. He did not expect it panning out this way. He thought it would have been good enough if he could listen to what he had wanted from his soul and let it go. However, Razen reappeared in front of him as a real being even after his death. His eyes heated up furiously and his body started trembling. It was all because he saw his father's face again so unexpectedly.

"What is your purpose?"

"Purpose? You must know it better than me."

Rorens yelled in a low key. His whole body felt like it was going to burst. The most disgusting feeling he had ever felt in his life dominated his mind. He wanted to put an end to this unpleasant reunion as soon as possible. He spoke fast.

"Razen. It's already been 15 years. That damn earthquake back in the past in Cheheran."

"…"

Razen looked at his son with unfocused eyes. In the end, he could not escape from that vicious cycle of fate even after he had become a soul wandering around the hell. He had to go back to the very day, like it or not. Making a hollow smile, Razen recollected his memory.

'Cutting the loop…'

Razen and Rorens thought at the same time. The day should be looked at squarely, for the deceased to be finally unburdened and set free from the previous life, as well as for the living man to remain unshaken and independent from the huge shadow named 'past'. Razen realized it.

"Tell me, my son."

"There's only one thing that I want to know… the truth of the incident on that very day."

"Truth."

Razen made a bitter smile. What the hell should he listen to more? And what the hell should he say more? Rorens must have already been locked in the wall that he had made himself, even without any tiny holes to outside. His hatred in his innermost would not disappear no matter what he said to him. Razen turned his eyes to Guillermo.

"Now I can understand why Rorens and you are in the same boat."

"Yeah. I just knew it as well."

Guillermo agreed with him seeing Rorens, who was scowling at Razen with his red eyes burning like a flame. He asked a question that had occurred to his mind abruptly.

"Before you answer Rorens… let me ask you this first."

"What is it?"

"When you died years ago, how come you knew it was me? I mean, the one behind your death."

"How come? That is a flimsy question. Rorens became the master of Ensis Knights and I was murdered. The hatred from Rorens? That alone must not have been enough to do anything. And there was only one person who had the nerve to help him kill me."

Guillermo chuckled.

"Yes, right. The prelude has now started. Cheheran's million soldiers are going to move south with Shadow Pain vanguard sooner or later. And of course, the end of this war will be… the great fall. Including me and this guy next here."

Guillermo tapped Rorens' back. The two living men and one soul that had gathered in that place. Each of them was a pity being. Watching Guillermo and Rorens, Razen repeated what he had always said when he had been alive.

"That wouldn't be bad, either."

"Well, then it's the time to give me the answer."

Rorens pushed Razen. Feeling that the medium's body was not mature enough to confine him any longer, he looked at Rorens' face thinking it may be the last time. Soon, his mouth opened slowly.

"Rorens. You didn't shoot me on that day."

"…!"

"…If I said so, would you believe it?"

Rorens' body became stiff. He could not answer that question. It might not have been important anymore whether he had shot his father to death or not. What was really important was the huge, inextinguishable hatred in his mind. Even he himself did not know where it would lead him in the end.

"My son, I will give you the answer. The clearest answer."

"…"

"…Reminiscence."

"…!"

"Drink Reminiscence. That is the only solution I can give you."

"What kind of bullshit are you saying all of a sudden?"

Razen's body started shrinking from the shape of a fully grown man. It meant time was up. The body of the girl who had turned only 17 this year was much more immature than anyone had expected. Rorens became impatient from that riddle. He had to ascertain what had really transpired before Razen departed from Stacey's body.

"As you are aware, Reminiscence is the medicine that deletes your memory. But to be precise, it doesn't delete it but only makes a part of it black so you cannot recall it. If you drink Reminiscence again…"

"…?"

"You will be able to see the bottom of that 'black', just for a while."

Rorens had already drunk Reminiscence once, and it had allowed him to run away from the painful reality that he had murdered his own father. But what on earth did he mean by that? If he takes the medicine that blotted his memory out, then it will do the opposite and revive that forgotten memory? It was too absurd to take it at face value. Rorens shouted.

"Cut the crap! Did you want to fool me around even after death?"

"Believe it or not, it is up to you. And now my time's up, so I want to ask you one thing."

"…?"

"Where is Rose?"

"Rose…! Why would you ask about him?"

"Tell me. Is he following you and Guillermo too?"

"He's just an imitation!"

"Rorens, it is my last word. We have to sever our cycle by ourselves. Don't draw him into this."

"…"

"At least… let him be happy. I remember the last news of him. It must have been… Hellon Knights. I heard he was doing well. …Now, my son. It's been a pleasure meeting you again…"

After that, Razen's body started mutating rapidly. His face entirely reformed. Adam's apple was drawn back and the shaggy mustache disappeared. The whole body was changing like a mollusk. Guillermo knew the meaning of that process. He walked up to the channeling chamber and tried to gently close the door between Razen and him, only to see Rorens spring to the front. Strands of silver line were following behind him.

*𝘚𝘸𝘰𝘰𝘴𝘩*

With the sound of cutting air, the head with the Stacey-like face which had stopped transforming into its original shape fell onto the ground. Before anyone knew it, there was a sword held in Rorens' hand. It was unbelievable speed.

"You…"

"Huff… huff…"

When the red burning eyes glared at him, Guillermo could not but flinch. Rorens was losing control of himself to the extent that even Guillermo, the man of blood-and-iron, could not look him in the eye. After several heavy panting, Rorens started running back at full speed towards the Guillermo's office. There was only one thought inside his head.

'Reminiscence.'

It was not close from the channeling chamber to the command center in the underground base, but it did not matter to Rorens. He violently opened the drawer of the desk at the side of the room when he arrived at the office. There were a number of various medicines including Reminiscence, which had been saved as 'weapons' of Requiem that were going to be used for the fall of mankind operation later on. Rorens picked the forbidden potion that had stolen a part of his memory among those numerous weapons. He had never thought that he would drink it ever again, but he did not care anyway as long as he could reveal the truth of that day. Pulling out a cork easily, Rorens gulped it down without hesitation. It was salty like tears and bitter like blood.

"…!"

Boundless sea spread out in front of his eyes. That was the vast soup where his past memories had been dissolved in it. In that chaotic sea, consciousness and unconsciousness were inverted. The memory he remembered sunk to the bottom and that fateful day under the deep unconsciousness rose to the top. It was like what had been completely forgotten was rushing into his mind all of a sudden like lightning.

Like Guillermo had said back in the day, and like Razen had said just a few minutes ago, Reminiscence was not a potion erasing the memory but only a potion painting black over and over on it, so that it could not be recalled ever. The moment the potion melted Rorens' body, that painting was removed and Rorens ended up remembering what had happened to him and what kind of thing he had done on the day the earthquake had hit.

"I…can't believe it."

He remembered the rocks densely falling down above his head. Right. By sheer luck, Razen, Rorens and Rose had survived in the narrow space surrounded by huge boulders, and they had tried to kill each other after a few hours due to oxygen deprivation. The very person who had pulled the trigger aiming at Razen's temple was…

Suddenly, the black torrential rain ran through Rorens' mind covering every single thing he had just remembered. The thick door of unconsciousness that had only opened briefly closed with a slam, and Rorens passed out.

‎

"…"

Guillermo, who had chased Rorens to the office, soon could find him fallen and curling up on the ground. There was a round-shaped empty bottle rolling around his body.

'Reminiscence… you ended up drinking it again. You wouldn't have done it if you were in your right mind.'

Guillermo murmured quietly. He felt deeply sorry for Rorens. Did he have to kill Stacey only because she had been replicating Razen's face at the moment. Did he really have to play the role of a pawn in Guillermo's ludicrous game, the end of the world. All of them were tragedies. Guillermo knew well the meaning of words Razen had left while disappearing. It meant he might be able to catch a glimpse of the memory he had lost by Reminiscence, but that moment of drinking the potion would be forgotten again, thereby sinking into the perpetual cycle of oblivion. Rorens could not be an exception to that, either. Guillermo thought the time was finally ripe. Rorens' hatred would never dissipate. He would finally move the troops once Rorens woke up. Rorens, the second strongest swordsman in the world that controls the first strongest swordsman Mikael Sepavile, would command Cheheran's powerful force at the front line. Provisions and armaments were enough as well. The first target Guillermo's armed forces would move to was Perriun kingdom, located right below Cheheran. He tilted his head back and stared at the empty ceiling of the command center. It was the kingdom unbelievably out of order, but at the same time, the one where he had belonged for a long time and gained many pleasant memories. Though he had gotten a lot of love calls from powers that had wanted to have the greatest politician in the century, he had rejected all of them saying 'the most valuable perfume is always in the smallest bottle'. It was certainly the country that Guillermo wanted to protect unlike others, but there could be no exception in his operation. A bitter smile hung around his lips. Without a word, he carried Rorens on his back and headed to a bedroom.

‎

"Shadow Pain is heading south?"

A big scoop with the title of 'Cheheran declares war' overran the palace in an instant. For the officers of Perriun who had totally forgotten the word 'war' and lived in clover, this was almost the same level of shock as 'King gets pregnant', 'Zenoa proclaims the unconditional surrender to Perriun', 'The silver knight Kiriyan Masis is a woman'. Because of that sudden declaration of war, some officers were lamenting that being trampled by enemy forces would be the only future of this kingdom, and others were insisting on surrendering to Cheheran as soon as possible to survive, and the others were even visiting the Ministry of Defense to find out the truth.

But the most shocked person among all of them was none other than Rose.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! If things go this way, importing peanuts from Cheheran will go down the toilet! How the hell is this happening!"

All Hellon Knights muttered 'how are we gonna deal with that shit' with an embarrassed look on their face, while seeing Rose sobbing with his head in a couch. Even though the whole kingdom's future was in peril, the master of knightage was still obsessed over some peanuts? Coming this far, it was already madness.

"Why the heck didn't I know that Cheheran had declared war!"

"Because you were in your own dreamland throughout their call to arms."

Illein said brusquely while sipping his black tea. After all the lukewarm reactions like 'he lived long enough anyway, didn't he?' from when he had heard that emperor Razen had been murdered, and now this silliness? Like he did not know anything at all so far? Illein felt an impulse to go ahead and scribble on Rose's back, 'Do your work, loafer'.

However, Rose had never acted the way Illein had wanted him to. He rose to his feet and clenched his fist.

"I don't have time! I must go to the front line and tell them to stop!"

"W…wait! Then what are we supposed to do?"

"Does that kind of thing really matter now?!"

"Aaaa! Our necks are on the line! The whole palace knightages will be given an order soon!"

"I don't give a damn about it!"

They all gaped at Rose, who turned his face away from them. How could anyone be so shameless like that? The situation where no one would say a word even if his subordinate shot him to death. Since they wouldn't stand a chance for physical mutiny, however, Hellon Knights decided to talk some sense into crazy Rose in a logical way.

"Sir Rose. Do you really think you could stop this war if you go there?"

Needless to say, the answer was 'no'. No matter how proficient he was in swordsmanship, it would be a dream to hold off the Cheheran's forces all by himself. Illein believed he hit the nail on the head, but even that was bounced off by Rose's delusion.

"Of coooooourse. Sir Kiriyan's out at our northern border line right now. He must be eagerly waiting for me there ----."

All Hellon Knights' eyes said, 'Damned if it is true!' looking at their master's carefree and goofy smile. He would be only causing troubles with that innocent face, they just already knew. Louis sitting next to Illein murmured with resignation, 'That guy's incurable'.

"You tend to look at things too optimistically."

However, Rose never gave up his (useless) resolution. 'He will stop soon.' Louis grumbled and nestled into the couch with his hands covering his face, but Rose went in his office and came back out soon with a big leather suitcase in his hand.

"W, weren't you kidding? Are you really gonna go?"

"Do you really wanna make things even harder for Sir Kiriyan, who's defending the front line right after discharge, without any break? No matter what it takes?!"

Treated like a mental breaker by his own subordinates, Rose waved a handkerchief lifting the huge bag with whatever was inside it.

"Everyone, it's been a real pleasure. Now I'm afraid I must say goodbye to you and start a new life…"

"You dummy! Never come back!"

"You are so mean -------."

Rose sniffled so sadly dabbing his eyes with the handkerchief. Louis shouted to his back as he walked out of the door like a mistreated woman.

"Sir Rose! What are we supposed to do if you go for real! I will throw out everything in your office if you leave now!"

Then Rose smiled, narrowing his wicked eyes.

"That wouldn't be bad, either. They will just take up space from now on."

"What?"

"Bye, now."

Rose bowed with a theatrical gesture as though he was an actor walking down a stage, and left.

The curtain seemed to be falling behind his back as he receded.