The Blue Dragon, its wings torn and fluttering like rags, struggled through the sea.
"I'm sorry, Uncle..."
Evelyn caressed Loktar's scales with her one remaining hand, her body dripping with blood.
[Don't speak!]
Loktar tried to push mana into Evelyn's body with trembling hands, but it wouldn't enter, only flowing out.
"It's too late."
Evelyn shook her head, as if it was already over.
"We were so close, but at the end..."
The memory of stopping her hand to see Sella one last time surfaced, and she couldn’t help but chuckle at her own foolishness.
"But you know what?"
Evelyn smiled, looking at the hand that had embraced Sella.
"Even though I knew it wasn't really Mother's soul, I was so happy. I had never hugged her before."
Sella had embraced her many times. Even before she died, she had hugged her and said she loved her. But Evelyn had never been the one to initiate an embrace. She was happy that she could hold her mother's hand and hug her one last time.
[......]
Loktar just growled sadly, seemingly at a loss for words.
"I'm sorry for being so stubborn all this time."
[Stop talking and save your strength!]
Feeling Evelyn's warmth fading, Loktar shouted, dropping formalities for the first time.
"Thank you so much, Uncle."
Evelyn touched Loktar with her weakened hand, a fragile smile on her face.
[W-wait!]
"As the last royal of the Sirken Kingdom, I command this: From this moment on, Knight Loktar Defort is freed."
[Evelyn!]
Loktar stopped flying and stared at Evelyn.
"Uncle, I hope you can be happy in place of Mother and me. I'm truly sorry..."
With those final words, Evelyn closed her eyes and let her hand fall. The life and warmth began to drain from her body.
[Ah....]
Loktar hunched his shoulders, looking at Evelyn's limp hand that had been holding him.
[Aaaaaaargh!]
As if sensing the Dragonian's solitary grief, the sea raised waves higher and deeper than ever before.
* * *
Loktar sighed, running his hand over the ice pillar.
"Be happy on my own? That's impossible."
He shook his head heavily, looking at Evelyn trapped in the ice pillar. Evelyn had freed him and told him to live happily, but he couldn't do that. His own life was nearly over due to his injuries, and he didn't want to send the lonely child away alone.
As Loktar stared blankly at Evelyn's corpse, sighing,
He heard someone entering the cave where he was staying.
"......"
Loktar remained silent, gripping the sword leaning against the wall. As he prepared to strike down whoever entered, a small flame like a lantern appeared before him.
"So this is where you were."
From behind the flame emerged a magician with a long gray beard.
"Birn?"
It was Birn, the high magician who had led the magicians in the last war.
"How did you..."
"I followed your traces. You went quite far."
Birn sighed, saying it had been difficult to come this far.
"So Evelyn died after all."
He clasped his hands as if in prayer, looking at Evelyn trapped in the ice.
"If she had survived, the history of magic on the continent would have changed."
Birn shook his head, saying Evelyn's talent was more special than anyone else's.
"I'm sorry. About that day..."
Loktar sighed and bowed his head.
"It couldn't be helped."
Birn nodded, saying he understood.
"But we achieved our goal. The Lothair Kingdom is gone, after all."
He smiled wryly, saying he was satisfied.
"Well, you only thought about revenge against Lothair, not the subsequent wealth or status."
Loktar said that seemed right as he put down his sword.
"Yes. That's why I came. We need to tie up the last loose end."
Birn turned his gaze from Loktar to Evelyn.
"What do you mean?"
Loktar furrowed his brow.
"If we leave her like this, that child will become an evil spirit."
"Ah, an evil spirit?"
“She didn’t achieve her desired goals and still has attachments to the living world.”
Birn clicked his tongue as he touched the ice encasing Evelyn.
"And you've trapped her in ice like this, which makes it even worse."
"Th-then what should we do!"
Loktar grabbed Birn's hand, asking him to tell him what to do.
"We should cremate her or bury her in the ground. Of course, we'll need to perform a ritual first."
Birn nodded, saying he could do it himself.
"Please. I don't want to cause that child any more pain!"
Loktar's lips trembled, seeming mentally broken.
"Of course."
Birn patted Loktar's shoulder, saying a comrade's business was his own.
"However, there are some items needed for the ritual. Could you go get them? I need to make preparations."
He handed Loktar a list of necessary items and some money.
"Get some fresh air and clear your head while you're at it."
"Ah, alright!"
Loktar said he was counting on him and rushed out of the cave.
"So we meet again like this."
Birn suddenly switched to formal speech as he placed his hand on the corpse containing Merlin. His reflection in the ice pillar was not that of a gray-bearded magician, but a strangely handsome man with golden eyes. It was the Sage.
As a black hole appeared in the Sage's palm, something in Evelyn's chest was sucked into him.
"Hmm, I might be able to use more of this."
The Sage smirked as he looked at Merlin, who had closed his eyes. In that instant, time stopped, and everything turned gray. Raon smirked as he saw the Sage's face reflected in the ice pillar.
"So that's how it happened."
It seemed the Sage had disguised himself as Birn to come here and extract something from Merlin's corpse.
'He must have manipulated her memories too.'
Someone of Merlin's caliber wouldn't fail to recognize the Fallen. The Fallen must have manipulated Merlin's soul to extract her power and alter her memories.
"I knew Merlin's situation was bad, but this..."
-A person's life. No, an entire race's existence was toyed with in that bastard's palm.
Wrath didn't burst into intense anger like before, but emanated a cold killing intent.
-I want to kill him myself, even if I have to face the consequences of causality.
He glared at the Fallen with reddening eyes, truly enraged.
"I'm sorry, but..."
Raon shook his head calmly.
"That guy is Merlin's prey."
Killing the Sage, no, killing the Fallen was something Merlin had to do herself when she woke up.
"Whoa."
As Raon watched Merlin trapped in the pillar with bitter eyes, the gray butterflies that had been depicting this final scene spread their wings and flew away, revealing a new location.
"This is..."
Looking again, it wasn't a new place. It was Para's village, which he had seen in Merlin's first memory.
-It's where the mad woman lived. However...
Wrath narrowed his eyes.
-This is different from that memory. It's the true mental world of the mad woman.
'It seems so.'
Like his own mental world filled only with swords and swordsmanship, Merlin's mental world seemed to consist entirely of this village.
'Though there are problems...'
Raon lowered his eyebrows as he looked at the mana rings splitting the air.
'It's completely broken.'
Those rings were the mana circles revolving around Merlin's heart, like the Ring of Fire in his own mental world. Because all of Merlin's mana circles in reality had shattered, they appeared collapsed here as well.
"Haa..."
Raon let out a long sigh as he entered the village.
'Let's meet Merlin first.'
He stepped into the village, prioritizing saving Merlin.
"Huh?"
Raon's eyes widened as soon as he entered the village.
"What is this..."
He had thought the houses were made of colorful bricks, but up close, he saw the walls were filled with drawings of himself.
"Ugh..."
Raon stopped in his tracks and turned his head to the right. The walls of the house there were also completely covered with drawings of his face.
-The mad woman is pitiful, but...
Wrath shook his head.
-She really is crazy.
'......'
There was no way to refute that.
'This is insane.'
Raon exhaled wearily and continued into the village.
-But those faces of yours embedded in the walls.
Wrath narrowed his eyes, looking at the drawings covering the walls.
-They're not just drawings of you.
'Then?
-They're drawings of you when you were with the mad woman.
He shook his head, saying she hadn't simply drawn his face, but himself from the times they were together.
'Now that you mention it...'
Raon stopped walking and examined the drawings closely.
'I remember all these places.'
From his first meeting with Merlin to the numerous scenes where she surprised him by appearing in animal form, and even their time together in Zieghart. Every scene showed him and Merlin together.
'It seems Merlin...'
Raon closed his eyes and sighed.
'She must have been recalling the times we spent together in this village.'
There were especially many drawings from when she lived as a maid in the annex building, as if she had enjoyed that time. The magician he had thought was crazy seemed to have been more fragile, affectionate, and fond of people than he had realized.
'Is that the place?'
He could see the house of Merlin and Sella from the past. A Blue Dragon was coiled around the house like a snake, as if guarding it. It was Loktar. Loktar briefly made eye contact with him before lifting his tail to open a path to the house.
"Thank you."
Raon bowed his head to Loktar before entering Merlin's house. Merlin's house was colder and chillier than Zieghart in winter. It was enough to make his whole body shiver and his hair stand on end.
Merlin was sitting in the center of the living room, looking at a canvas with a drawing paper on it. Countless unfinished drawings were scattered at her feet.
"It's no use..."
Merlin shook her head with a sobbing voice.
"I can't remember..."
She muttered that she didn't know, crumpling up the drawing she had been working on and throwing it to the floor. Raon approached Merlin from behind and unfolded the drawing that had just fallen. The drawing showed a woman with golden hair and red eyes, but her face was somehow distorted.
'Could it be...'
Raon narrowed his eyes and unfolded the other drawings. They all showed a woman with golden hair and red eyes, but her features were missing.
'I understand now.'
Raon bit his lip deeply.
'Merlin was trying to draw Sella.'
It seemed she had tried to draw Sella out of longing, but due to the Fallen's memory manipulation, she had forgotten who she was trying to draw and how to draw her.
'If it's now...'
Raon took a short breath and approached Merlin, who had taken out a new drawing paper. He gently grasped her trembling hand.
"Ah..."
Merlin looked at him with wide eyes.
"Raon? Why are you here! You shouldn't be here..."
"The mother I saw..."
Raon smiled faintly as he guided Merlin's hand.
"Had neatly tied golden hair as bright as the sun, and eyes with a warm red glow like a bonfire. Her nose bridge was high like the edge of a sword. She was a beautiful woman with a refreshing aura."
Recalling the Sella he had seen, he made Merlin draw her mother with her own hand.
"Your mother loved you until the end, and you loved her until the very last moment. What I saw was..."
He continued to draw while telling Merlin everything he had seen and felt. It took a long time to recount everything he had witnessed, but in contrast to the lonely and sorrowful story, a gentle smile blossomed on Sella's lips in the drawing, as if welcoming her daughter.
"Is this..."
Merlin dropped the brush she had been holding and parted her lips.
"My mother?"
"Yes."
Raon nodded, facing the drawing of Sella that remained in his memory.
"Ah..."
With Merlin's deep exclamation, a soft sunlight entered the house that had been filled only with cold air, and a gentle flame arose from the fireplace. The warm and gentle atmosphere of the house where Sella and Merlin had lived together was revived.
Following the clear light emanating from Merlin's house, her broken and collapsed mana flow began to reconnect anew.
But this flow was different from before. It was the fundamental mana wave that Para should possess. As the tenth circle rose high into the sky, a soft purple radiance enveloped Merlin's entire body.
"I..."
Merlin nodded, feeling the ten rings revolving around her heart.
"I remember everything now."
She shed transparent tears from her pure purple eyes, saying she finally remembered it all.
"Then let's go."
Raon reached out his hand to Merlin, who was holding the drawing preciously to her chest.
"Evelyn."