Hearing Tina's words—words she had already come to realize—began to echo in Rena's mind.
…don't kill them.
Very brief, but clear enough to take root in Rena's head.
At least now Rena understood.
They weren't pure monsters.
There was still something human inside them.
Or at least—
In front of Rena, those creatures slowly approached.
Their bodies remained unnatural.
The giant chicken monster with empty eyes.
The cockatrice that kept scraping its claws against the ground.
The black wolf with hot, blood-mixed breath.
The frog monster with its transparent stomach.
And the slimy fish with human legs, its tiny eyes constantly blinking across its body.
But until now,
there was no sign of attack. They were too slow to be considered predators hunting the three humans—Hero Claire, Hero Tina, and Rena.
Seeing all of that,
Rena could only clench both fists tightly inside her large robe pockets.
Suddenly,
for a moment,
her mind began to drift away from reality.
The sounds around her became faint.
The monsters' growls felt distant. The slow footsteps were no longer audible.
Even so, Rena was still aware that
night had already fallen. This time, in the real world—not in Tina's memory. Yet the arrival of night felt like a continuation of Tina's memory, which had ended in the late afternoon…
Even so,
the cold night wind slowly faded from her awareness.
And what surfaced in her mind instead was—
her secret admirer.
A mysterious person she didn't recognize, yet someone who had the determination to achieve their goal.
That's right—sending a love letter to Rena.
Then, after that—
Hero Anna.
A figure Rena knew very well.
A role model for Rena.
Someone who had stood at the front line all along.
Who kept fighting even when everything began to change.
Those fragments of memory appeared uninvited.
Mixed.
Blurred.
Rena lowered her face slightly.
Dark shadows covered her eyes.
And between reality and her drifting mind, Rena now truly had to decide—what she would choose.