Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu

It was the bottom of deep darkness.

Darker, deeper than that darkness... a greater malice spoke.

"You advance forward only on the correct path. You"re strong enough to even be able to trample over everything important to you, if you deemed it necessary. Friends. Loved ones. Everything. That is your nature alone. Now then, show me. The correct path..."

The malice continued to speak.

"Show me the path you will walk."

"......"

At that, Sion let out a light breath.

And again he tried to breathe in, but air wouldn"t enter.

His breathing.

The air...

Instead, the only thing that entered was darkness.

"......"

Sion directed his gaze to the scattered doc.u.ments on the floor.

Those were all the doc.u.ments yielded by Luke Stokkart.

In those doc.u.ments, matters regarding Ryner were written.

Ryner had made contact with a spy from Gastark.

However, rather than go there, it seemed he was returning to Roland.

It appeared that other Cursed Eye bearers were gathering together as a force, in which case Ryner could potentially become a mediator between them and Roland—that was the proposal Luke was establishing.

If they were able to join hands with the Cursed Eye bearers" force, they would have an advantage if they went to war with Gastark, etc.

"......"

But such things had no meaning.

Whether Ryner could be of use or whether he couldn"t.

None of those had any meaning.

"......"

If there was a meaning, it was only in his eyes.

His...

Only in the Solver of All Equations.

That, Sion knew.

That, Sion...

"... I—"

That was why he gave out the orders to kill him.

Because it was necessary.

But,

"... I... I won"t kill Ryner."

Then, before him.

Sinking in the bottom of the darkness, a figure appeared.

Golden hair. Closed eyes. And unbelievable beauty.

Lucile Eris.

He gazed this way, and,

"... That is your chosen path?"

"It is."

"You will not kill Ryner Lute?"

"Correct."

Sion nodded.

However, in response, Lucile unsurprisingly laughed.

"... Fu, fufufu... as expected, Sion, you"re magnificent... I see. Then, you"ve chosen an even crueler path."

"......"

Sion didn"t respond.

But Lucile"s voice continued.

"... As Ryner is an important friend to you, I thought it would"ve been kinder for him to be killed as soon as possible... but it seems you"ve decided to walk down a th.o.r.n.y path."

"......"

Sion didn"t respond.

"But are you truly all right with this? If you kill that, a replacement will immediately be born. Together with you. The same cogwheels of this world. Rather than sacrifice a friend..."

"......"

Sion didn"t respond.

At that, Lucile seemed satisfied, and smiled faintly.

"... Fu, fufu, well, it"s fine. I pray that you don"t regret it, my... my hero."

And he vanished.

Darkness returned to the world once more.

Sion stared into that darkness...

"......"

But unsurprisingly, he said nothing.