The Hostess of Fertility.
Evening was when the tavern was at its liveliest.
Adventurers, done with a day of Dungeon delving, gathered here in twos and threes, using ale and roasted meat to soothe exhausted bodies, using loud laughter and boisterous chatter to push back the shadow of death.
Firewood crackled in the hearth, and orange-red light dyed the whole room in a warm, raucous glow.
Yet in the middle of all that noise, one corner felt as if it were sealed off by an invisible film, completely out of step with the surrounding cheer.
Ryuu Lion.
She went through her usual work with empty eyes.
Her short golden hair caught a soft halo in the firelight, but that exquisitely beautiful face was covered by a lingering gloom that would not lift.
She'd held the same posture for a long time. Both hands loosely cupped around a mug, gaze resting on the surface of the drink, and yet focused on nothing at all.
Those green eyes were firmly occupied by a memory she couldn't shake.
"…You're spacing out again, Ryuu."
A light, cheerful voice sounded beside her, pulling Ryuu back to the present.
She lifted her head, and there was Syr Flover, wearing her usual gentle smile.
The silver-gray-haired girl braced both hands on the counter and leaned forward slightly, gray eyes full of concern.
"You've been spacing out all day," Syr said softly. "From opening this morning until now, that makes four times. Did something happen?"
Ryuu stared at that sincere smile, her throat tightening.
She wanted to say it was nothing. She wanted to use the same line she'd used countless times to push the worry away.
But today, the words jammed in her throat and refused to come out.
"…I'm fine."
What came out sounded more like a challenge than reassurance.
Syr didn't back off like she normally would.
She slipped out from behind the counter, turned sideways at Ryuu's shoulder, and watched her quietly with eyes that looked like they could see straight through people.
"Ryuu."
Her voice dropped even softer, nearly swallowed by the tavern's din, but every word landed clearly. "We've known each other a long time. Every time you say you're fine, that's when things are the worst."
Ryuu didn't answer.
She lowered her gaze. The pale ale she hadn't touched reflected a blurred version of her face.
"Is it something in the Dungeon?" Syr asked carefully. "Or… did you meet someone special?"
"Someone special…"
Ryuu repeated the phrase under her breath, and something complicated flickered through her green eyes.
That person really was special.
An ordinary adventurer, yet he'd used the magic sword of "Silent" the Demon Sword Walwong.
A sadist who, right in front of her, had chopped off the arms and legs of four members of the Evilus faction, then declared he would "pack them into jars," yet when she stepped in to stop it, he'd tried again and again to explain himself.
A boy she had pursued to the edge of death, who at the very last moment—
Right beside her ear, he'd left a sentence that could shatter five years of frozen resolve.
"The one truly responsible for the destruction of the Astraea Familia… is still alive."
Ryuu's fingers tightened around her mug.
What did that even mean?
Did he really know something, or was it just a lie improvised at the brink of death to throw her off?
If it was a lie, he was insane.
If it wasn't—
Then who was he?
And those Evilus members whose limbs he'd severed.
After he escaped, she'd intended to check their condition. At the very least, she couldn't let them die there.
But when she got close, their faces came into view with brutal clarity.
Scarface.
A tall, gaunt man.
A bald head.
A one-eyed thug.
She knew them all.
In five years of hunting for vengeance, she had trailed those faces more times than she could count.
They belonged to Evilus, the kind that preyed on lone adventurers, robbed them, and killed for entertainment.
He hadn't lied.
They really were Evilus.
He hadn't deceived her.
And yet, because she'd seen that bloody private execution ground, because of the bone-deep hatred she'd carried for five years, she'd reflexively treated him as one of the torturers too. She hadn't given him a single chance to explain before she raised her blade.
Only now did she realize how terrible it had been.
Someone who was trying to hunt Evilus.
Someone who might share the same goal as her.
Someone who hadn't even had time to tell her his real name—
And she had treated him as someone to be killed.
She had almost killed him.
If he had died like that on the fifteenth floor…
Ryuu shut her eyes, and the faces she had buried with her own hands surfaced from the depths of memory. Alise, Kaguya, and the rest of the Astraea Familia…
Their smiles. The last look they'd given her. The way their hands had reached toward the sky as they fell.
If that boy became one more face among them…
She couldn't bear to think it through.
"…Ryuu?"
Syr's voice sounded again, pulling her back from the thoughts that were turning darker and darker.
Ryuu opened her eyes and met Syr's worried gray gaze.
She wanted to say something. To tell Syr she was fine. To paste on a smile and brush it all away.
But she couldn't.
Her green eyes brimmed with emotions even she couldn't fully untangle—
Guilt, for misunderstanding someone innocent, for nearly killing someone…
Self-reproach, because five years of frozen hatred had robbed her of the ability to listen.
Confusion, because of the secret hidden behind that sentence.
And a faint, fragile hope she hardly dared admit.
If what he said was true.
If the real culprit really was still alive.
Then after five years of wandering vengeance, living like a walking corpse, did she finally have a clear target?
"…Syr."
She spoke suddenly, voice hoarse.
"Hm?"
"If there was someone you misunderstood, hurt… someone you almost killed, and they might know something that matters to you more than anything, what would you do?"
Syr tilted her head, thinking for a moment, then smiled warmly.
"Then of course… you find him first, and apologize properly."
She reached out and gently covered Ryuu's tightly gripping hand with her own, her warmth steady and grounding.
"No matter what he knows, and even if you don't want to tell him everything, the apology you owe him should come first. And then…" She blinked. "If he really does know something important to you, you ask him. If you're sincere, he'll feel it."
Ryuu fell silent for a long while.
"…Find him."
She repeated the words quietly.
But she didn't know his name. She didn't know which familia he belonged to. She didn't even know if he was alive.
That day, she'd searched for a long time, combing almost everything between the fifteenth and eighteenth floors, and she still found no trace of him.
He had simply vanished.
No. Not vanished.
There was that sharp pop, the crisp crack of air bursting, and the last look he'd given her before his figure disappeared.
It was magic.
A kind of magic she had never seen, something that could move someone a vast distance in an instant.
She shouldn't have been able to catch him.
But she still searched.
"…Ryuu?"
Syr's voice called her back again.
Ryuu lifted her head, looked out at the sky dimming beyond the window, and suddenly rose to her feet.
"Help me ask Mama Mia for leave."
"Huh? Now?" Syr stood up in surprise. "But we're about to hit the busiest time…"
Ryuu was already striding toward the door.
Her short golden hair fluttered lightly in the wind, and that silhouette quickly vanished into the deepening night outside.
Syr watched the direction she'd gone, and let out a quiet sigh.
"Ryuu…"
(End of Chapter)
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