Renn was sharpening his sword in the duty room on the east side of his camp, under the light of a single candle.
He sat on the edge of the camp bed, holding a whetstone in his left hand, sliding it repeatedly over the blade.
Unlike the sword he had shown Esper before, this one was newly issued from the Empire last month, its blade engraved with runes completely different from his old sword.
It had taken him over a month of gradual work to find the right feel and grind the hilt into a comfortable grip.
The Sword Saint sat on the chair opposite him, an old photo album spread across her lap.
When she turned to a certain page, her finger paused for a long time. The photo was already very old, its corners yellowed and curled, but the three figures in the image were still clear.
Rihanna stood right in the middle. To her left was Renn, who didn't even reach her shoulder back then, and to her right was a blonde girl making an extremely perfunctory peace sign at the camera.
“Master, do you hate her?”
Renn did not look up. The whetstone continued to slide evenly across the blade.
“I hate her.”
Rihanna's voice held no hesitation.
Renn nodded. He slid the whetstone back and forth three more times, then set it down and lifted the sword to inspect the edge against the candlelight.
The words that needed to be said would eventually come out of his mouth, but the time had not yet come.
Rihanna flipped past that page of the album and closed the book.
She stood up, walked over to Renn, and looked at his profile illuminated by the candlelight, falling silent for a moment.
Once the expedition set out, he would join the vanguard legion. That was the position that would be the first to clash head-on with the Black Tide.
“Renn.”
“Yes.”
“Don't charge too far ahead for military merits, don't act on impulse, and don't try to be a hero. If you encounter an enemy you can't handle, send out a signal. Don't think of it as embarrassing—losing face is better than losing your life.”
She spoke these words slightly faster than usual, too fast for her to use silence to mask her overly blunt concern.
Renn looked up at his master, who was masking her anxiety with a stern expression.
And so, he sheathed his sword, stood up, and solemnly gave her a standard knight's salute.
“I understand, Master.”
Rihanna looked at his face. It was still young under the candlelight, but it held far less confusion than it had in his childhood.
He had grown up. He was no longer the little knight who would secretly wipe away tears after being knocked down by her on the training grounds.
She opened her mouth, but the words wouldn't come. Instead, she simply reached out and gently patted his shoulder.
Don't die.
The final words she wanted to say—the words she had once wanted to say to someone else—were ultimately left unspoken.
.
Noelle was reading a book.
It was a very old, heavily worn copy of Theory of Elemental Resonance, its spine stained with coffee and ink.
This textbook had been phased out by the Mage Tower in favor of a newer, thicker edition the year she graduated. Yet she had kept this old copy because the pages contained many things that were omitted in the reprint.
As she flipped past the last paragraph of the third chapter, she spotted a line of annotations at the bottom of the page.
The handwriting was slender and sharp, written in black ink on the yellowed paper. The phrasing was simple and precise, summarizing the logic of an entire paragraph with just a few key terms.
Beneath those neat lines of writing, there was an even smaller line of text.
“I left this for you on purpose. You're arrogant and look down on others, so if you made a mistake here, you'd make a huge fool of yourself. Don't thank me, though—just treat me to a meal later.”
Noelle stared at that small line of text for a long time.
She closed the book and saw that the night outside the window was deep.
Then, she opened the book again. She flipped from chapter three to chapter four, and then to chapter five. The margins of every chapter bore traces of that handwriting, to varying degrees.
She read slowly along those traces. When the sky outside the window finally began to pale with dawn, she placed her bookmark where she had left off the night before, and then rested her cheek against the pages.
.
Abyss City, Gloom Castle.
Countless eyes looked up at the castle's high platform.
High on the platform stood their ruler.
The Demon King, Rafina Thun, Rank Nine, successor of the Evernight Barrier, and sovereign lord of the Ten Courts of the Demon Realm.
She looked down at the silent, solemn military formations, and at the gazes directed at her from within those ranks.
There were many different kinds of gazes there.
The coldness of obedience, the fear of a superior, and the dread and unease toward an unknown battlefield.
But not a single pair of eyes held contempt, disgust, or looked at her as a half-breed who shouldn't exist here.
Because now, she was the ruler trusted by everyone.
Her long silver-white hair lifted and swayed in the wind. She took a step forward, the high-altitude wind whipping her skirt into a flurry of rustles.
She raised her hand and addressed her subordinates in a clear, gentle voice.
“Everyone, our expedition is not for invasion, nor is it solely for profit, and it is certainly not to prove the superiority and strength of demons. It is not so this time, and it never will be in the future.
The Black Tide has never discriminated between races. Among the corrupted creatures, there are humans, elves, dragons, and demons alike.
This time, we do not fight only for the Demon Realm. We fight for all living beings who wish to continue living.
We fight for a better world.”
.
Esper looked at the starlight in the night sky.
The day of the expedition's departure was close at hand.
The sweat shed on the training grounds, the three meetings in Maple Town, the head-aching explanations of the Root Language in Wald's office, and the moments spent softly conversing with Eladia every night—all of it suddenly converged.
Faint footsteps approached from behind, but Esper, immersed in her memories, did not react immediately.
She simply continued to think.
She thought of Ade's gratitude, Zhong's disdain, Louis's contorted face, Landon's booming laughter, and Kaylar's final expression.
Then, the footsteps stopped behind her.
They were very light, making only a soft rustling sound on the grass.
In an instant, Esper realized who it was.
“Ela, didn't you go to sleep?”
“You weren't there, Esper... so I woke up...”
Eladia rubbed her eyes, walked over to take her hand, and sat down on the grass beside her.
The night wind was a bit chilly. Eladia gathered her white nightgown, its hem spreading across the grass in a small fan shape.
Esper noticed a few blades of grass clinging to the hem of her nightgown and reached out to brush them away. Eladia let out a soft hum and leaned a bit closer to her.
“The expedition is starting soon.”
“Mm...”
Their conversation was brief; they simply felt each other's quiet breathing.
The starlight fell upon their clasped fingers, upon Eladia's half-closed eyelids, and upon the Plains of Holy Remains far out of sight.
At this moment, the night sky still belonged to the two of them.
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