Creak-.With a chilling squeal of hinges, a man stepped into the room.Step, step-.His shadow, backlit by moonlight, stretched long across the floor.An adult man with a fairly large frame and solid muscles. In his hand, he held something like an axe.Coming secretly into someone else’s room in the middle of the night with an axe.Even a halfwit could probably guess his intent.'Someone who bears a grudge against Loen, huh.'A vicious aura radiated from the man.I couldn’t feel any strong mana or that particular fighting spirit unique to martial artists.The intruder in front of me was neither mage nor knight. He was merely an ordinary person with a bit of training.“Huff. Huff.”But from his lightly trembling shoulders and unsteady breathing, I could sense his anger.I asked in a calm voice.“What grudge brought you here?”The man clenched his teeth and answered in a trembling voice.“As expected… you don’t even remember.”“I hit my head, you see. Is the village chief in on this too, by any chance?”This was the village chief’s house.Without the chief’s cooperation, he wouldn’t have been able to barge in this quietly.“In on it, huh, you could say that.”Crack-.The man gripped the axe in his hand tightly and spoke.“You killed my wife, Amy… the village chief’s daughter.”“…”So the village chief and this man were father-in-law and son-in-law. If that was the case, this situation made sense.‘I knew he’d made enemies here and there and piled up big and small grudges, but I didn’t think he’d actually killed someone.’I didn’t know the details, but if it was the original owner of this body, Loen, it was plausible.Loen wasn’t the sort who thirsted for blood and death, but he was enough of a villain to hurt someone for some incidental reason or for his own goals.'Even so, this is a bit of a shock.'Up until now, I’d been hated a lot because of Loen’s infamy, but this was on a completely different level from anything I’d experienced so far.Revenge for a murdered wife.In my entire life, I’d never stood face-to-face with this intense a hatred and fury before.It wasn’t exactly the right time to be asking this kind of question, but out of pure curiosity, I asked him.“Could you tell me the details of that incident? I really don’t remember.”But the man seemed to think I was deliberately provoking him, because he immediately kicked off from the floor and rushed at me.“No, just die!”Whoosh-.With a shout brimming with rage, the axe flew straight for my neck.Of course.Thud-.“…!”The axe he swung bounced off and was deflected, unable to pierce the Aegis shield.“Guh.”He grabbed his torn palm and swung the axe again, but—Thud-.The result was the same.Even so, he didn’t give up and kept swinging the axe.Bang-.Bang-.Bang-.But no matter how many times he kept striking, nothing changed. Only the axe blade was getting damaged.“Why!”The man swung the axe for a long time with blood streaming from his hand, crying out in a half-sobbing voice.“Why!”After pounding the shield for a long while, he threw the bloodstained axe to the floor and collapsed forward.“Khk, sob.”The man’s body shook with anger and helplessness as he wept.“…”I, a total stranger, couldn’t fully grasp his feelings, but his sorrow seemed to come through to me intact.I silently watched him, then got down from the bed, knelt on one knee, and met his eyes at the same level as I asked.“I’m not trying to provoke you. I really don’t remember. Tell me the details of what happened.”“…”The man clenched his blood-covered hand and recalled the events of that day.***Duron, a young man of the village.Duron was the village’s greatest warrior, with more than enough talent to become a soldier of House Dvralis.But he was a simple-hearted young man who was content with village life.Rather than go out to a complicated city and rub shoulders with strangers, he preferred living his whole life in the village where he’d been born and raised, even if it was hard, together with his neighbors.Having stayed in the village, he came of age and married the village chief’s daughter, Amy.A happy, harmonious family life.Working the fields in the mountains and hunting monsters was hard work, but because he had a beloved wife and son, every day was happiness for Duron.But three years ago.“Uuh…”“Amy, Amy!”His beloved wife Amy suddenly fell ill.“Kyahhh!”On nights when the full moon rose, she would sometimes scream and have seizures.Every now and then, she would stare blankly into the forest or mutter something incomprehensible.As if she’d been possessed by a ghost.The herb merchant who visited the village and the priest and doctor they’d hired from a large city with a huge sum of money all said they didn’t know the cause and washed their hands of it.Of course, it wasn’t a sickness that would necessarily kill her.Her strength would fail and she would sometimes have fits, but if she rested for a few days before and after the seizures, she would become fine again, and this repeated.But even so, Duron and the village chief couldn’t feel good about being unable to do anything for Amy as she suffered.While they were weighed down by such worry—“Loen, they say Loen has come out from the main castle again!”To add insult to injury, news that Loen would be coming to the village once more turned the whole village upside down.Of all times, he was coming right when they’d spent a fortune to summon doctors and priests.The only reason he would come to the village was to collect.More precisely, rather than seizing wealth, it was more like plundering the items the villagers mainly used.The village chief consulted with Duron.“It’d be best to tell him the whole story. Even Loen might understand if he hears the circumstances.”“…Understood, Father-in-law.”Not long after, Loen came to the village, and the villagers all gathered at the village entrance to receive him.Loen visited the village with his maid in tow, just like always.Duron and the village chief prostrated themselves before him and explained the situation.“…”Loen listened silently, then ordered them to guide him to Amy, who was lying in bed.“Lead the way.”Duron and the village chief hesitated briefly, but decided that it would be better to show the situation directly to Loen and led him to Amy.And that choice became the mistake of a lifetime for them.Amy, lying in bed, panting shallowly, only a short time after the seizure had ended.Loen put his hand to Amy’s forehead and asked.“It seems she’s suffering from seizures.”“That’s right.”At that answer, with a single word, Loen took a vial of medicine from his coat and made Amy drink it.“Then this will be good.”“…!”Before they could stop him, the medicine slid down Amy’s throat.Duron and the village chief could only stare blankly and watch what happened.And a short while later.Amy’s labored breathing calmed, and symptoms like the high fever that followed seizures and the blotches on her skin disappeared as well.Duron and the village chief widened their eyes as they watched Amy’s condition improve.That Loen, whom they hadn’t expected anything from at all, had cured Amy’s illness.Looking at this, Loen said.“Now… things will be fine. For this woman, and for this village.”And the next day, Amy passed away.***“If it weren’t for you, if it weren’t for you alone…”Duron sobbed on the floor with his fists clenched.“…”After hearing the whole story, I fell into thought for a moment.I couldn’t understand Loen’s actions, nor the process and outcome of the incident.It was possible that Amy had simply suffered from her illness and died regardless of Loen.'But there’s no way to know that.'If Loen hadn’t visited, there was also the possibility that Amy might have someday recovered from the illness and lived on in good health.Given that, to them, there was no «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» doubt that Loen was their mortal enemy who had poisoned Amy.Seen that way, the anger they directed at me was entirely justified.'A grudge stewed for years.'These people, who had been holding back this grief, waiting for the day they could take revenge on Loen, had quickly drawn up a plan to kill me as soon as I arrived.Even if it was a hastily made, clumsy plan, if it had been the real Loen, sprawled out asleep, he might well have died without being able to move.Once I finished my thoughts, I spoke in a quiet voice.“I see. Then what would you like me to do, Duron?”At that, Duron suddenly sprang to his feet and lunged at me.Thud-.Though he was blocked by a transparent barrier, he pounded his fists against Aegis and shouted.“Death! Only your death can serve as an apology to Amy!”“Death, huh. Sorry, but that’s not possible.”I’d already died once, hit by a truck. I had no desire to die again here.And I still had things I needed to do.“No, you’re already as good as dead. You’re going to burn to death together with this house where Amy breathed her last!”And at the same time—Fwoom-.Whether they’d already poured oil everywhere earlier, flames sprang up in an instant and engulfed the village chief’s house.Watching the thick, hot smoke fill the room, I asked.“So you were stalling for time.”The reason Duron had obediently explained the past was to buy time for the fire to be lit outside.“That’s right, you’re going to die here with me!”Duron glared at me from within the sea of fire and screamed.I could understand his anger and grief, but that didn’t mean I had any intention of dying here.“No.”Thump-.When I kicked Duron with my shoe, his body trembled and he passed out.It was thanks to the built-in shocking function in the shoelaces.I slung Duron’s limp body over my shoulder and spoke.“Neither you nor I are dying today.”***“…”The bedding prepared at the village hall.Having taken a bath in warm water, Ciel and Freya entered the same room.Soft moonlight poured in through the window to the side.“Good night.”“Yes, you too, Miss Ciel.”After a short exchange of greetings, the two of them lay down on the rough straw beds and closed their eyes without a word.An awkward silence flowed through the room.In the room, quiet as the grave, only the two of them’s soft breathing could be heard.“…”It would have been fine if they’d fallen asleep quickly, but for some reason Ciel and Freya couldn’t fall asleep.How much time passed like that.At least hours of the night went by, but neither of them managed to drift off.In the end, unable to endure the silence, Freya was the first to open her lips.“Miss Ciel, are you asleep?”“No.”“O-oh, I see.”She hadn’t expected such an immediate answer.In any case, since she wasn’t sleepy, Freya scratched her cheek and spoke about the schedule ahead.“Um, Miss Ciel. Since we’ve come this far, would it be all right if I also stopped by House Dvralis?”From here, it was a three-day distance to the main castle of House Dvralis.It wouldn’t be bad to see Duke Aslan again after so long.Besides, they had saved a lot of time thanks to the Director’s magic.Ciel replied.“You don’t need my permission.”“Ah, that’s true. But we’re traveling together, after all.”Ciel lay there silently for a moment, then spoke again.“I don’t mind. If you visit, the Duke will be pleased as well.”That was true.Now, Aslan was the head of House Dvralis and a grand duke with an incredible title, but from Freya’s perspective, she felt more like a neighborhood older sister she’d often met.In fact, Freya had often visited the main castle of House Dvralis, and every time, Aslan had welcomed her kindly.If the previous head, Kaizel, hadn’t died, if she hadn’t broken off the engagement with Loen, and if Loen hadn’t suddenly changed, they would probably have interacted even more often than now.Ciel continued.“However, Lady Freya, your visiting our main castle could be interpreted with a different intent.”“Ah, you mean the engagement matter?”Freya, who had cut off contact after the broken engagement, visiting House Dvralis during vacation?This could overlap with the recent situation in Union, where she had been spending time closely with Loen, and give rise to needless rumors.For example, gossip that their engagement had been reinstated might start to circulate.“Yes. If such political views or gossipy tongues bother you, choosing not to visit is one option.”Ciel’s words also had merit.Once word spread that she had visited, someone was bound to think that way.Freya thought about it for a moment, then shook her head.“No, I don’t care what people think. And perhaps…”Freya recalled what had happened today in this small village.Clearing away the large boulder embedded in the field, unclogging the well, and helping with the villagers’ work.It had been physically tiring, but very rewarding.'If Loen continues to change like he is now…'If he cared for the weak and fulfilled the duties of a noble, and repented his past misdeeds, offering sincere apologies to those he had harmed.It might not be so bad to walk alongside him again.“…”Freya didn’t voice the rest of that thought, but somehow Ciel felt like she could guess her intent.While they were chatting like that for a while—Fwoom-.They saw bright flames spreading beyond the window.Freya sprang up in shock and spoke.“It looks like there’s a fire. I’m sure that direction is where Loen was staying…”“…!”The two of them immediately got out of bed and ran toward the burning log house— the village chief’s house where Loen had been staying.

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