Midnight Reflections Over Tenebris

The three stories had already passed, and the hour had grown very late. At a time when the hour hand had crept dangerously close to twelve, I returned not to the bedroom but to my office. What greeted my eyes was the nightscape of Tenebris sprawling beyond the wide-open window.

During my days living as the hero Eternal, I had often wondered what kind of world lay inside that black dome. Yet never once in those imaginings had I pictured a sight like this.

The tall building I resided in—what the many citizens below called the Demon King’s Castle—stood higher than any other spire. From here, the entire world unfolded at a glance. Beneath the dark night sky, each district held its own twinkling lights. The building over there, glowing brightly even at this late hour, clearly still had people working overtime. And in the distance, the cluster of tiny figures suggested some sort of restaurant or tavern.

Wishing to savor the beautiful view a little longer, I took a bottle of liquor that looked suitably tempting from the cabinet. I had already drunk quite a lot earlier with Gini Luxury, but this body no longer grew drunk on alcohol. In a mood like tonight, I simply couldn’t endure without another drink.

I recalled something Anima had once told me. If I consumed anything harmful, it would apparently be automatically detoxified. Since the body I possessed was not a normal living being but something closer to an artificial lifeform, it possessed such functions. However, that also meant that even if I didn’t feel intoxicated, I was still expending the body’s power. In the end, this body consumed a great deal of mana. While it would recover, the act of detoxification clearly burned through mana, so it was probably wiser not to drink.

Still, refusing a drink on a night like this felt ridiculous.

I opened the bottle I had taken out. Its surface was covered in illegible scrawl; the only clear word was WHISKY. I dropped a few ice cubes into a glass and poured.

The amber liquid made a comical glug glug glug sound as it filled the glass, etching faint scratches into the ice and stealing its chill. I returned to the window and took a sip of the cold on-the-rocks. The icy liquid cooled my burning tongue, releasing a faint smoky aroma. When I swallowed, the heat returned almost immediately, racing from my throat down to my stomach and warming my entire body.

One sip. Then another.

Drinking while gazing at the scenery outside the window cooled my mind more than anything else in the world. It was during that peaceful moment that a knock sounded at the door.

Knock. Knock.

I wondered who would come looking for me at this hour, but the moment I saw her, it all made sense.

It was always Anima. I was surprised she had come to see me so late, but since I also had something to tell her, it worked out perfectly.

Anima handed me a single sheet of paper.

A backlash because of Miriam… Well, unlike me, she had an enormous number of fanatics in certain regions.

Inferno. Ileana. And Elin had been there too, hadn’t she? Their faces—faces I both missed and longed to see—floated before my eyes. Just imagining the stress they must be enduring filled me with indescribable joy.

The Legion of Sloth. Its commander was Della Objet. Just that fact alone made the situation utterly incomprehensible.

If she had accepted, I would have happily poured the whisky for her myself. But Anima refused with absolute firmness. Sometimes I wondered if she rejected too many things I offered her.

This time Anima took out a tablet and showed it to me.

After seeing Anima off, I poured myself one more drink, then went straight to the bedroom and lay down to sleep. It had truly been a night filled with many thoughts.