The Departed Train
The sun had grown even darker than during the battle between Frey and Ruby, making it hard to tell, but night was beginning to fall.
"...Oppa."
Thanks to that, in the garden of the imperial palace shrouded in thick darkness, Abraham was smoking a strong cigarette, while Aria sat collapsed on the ground in a daze.
"........."
And watching them blankly was the only person who had remained there until then—Perloché.
"Ugh..."
Why was Perloché the last one left in that spot?
The reason was simple. No one could bear to tell them Frey's whereabouts, so Abraham, thinking they were still under a misunderstanding, had grinned broadly in the garden and revealed the entire truth to those present.
And as if to prove Abraham's words, couriers and reports began arriving one after another to the hero party members—from various places proving it all.
Finally, Perloché's trembling voice recounting part of what she had seen and heard while praying, and the sun growing ever darker as if to contradict it.
All those who had heard and seen those stories and pieces of information had scattered, each lost in their own thoughts.
"I-I can't accept this. The hero is Ruby. Frey couldn't possibly be the hero."
"We'll investigate. If what we've heard so far is true... there must be evidence left behind."
Most of the sub-heroines had scattered, unable to accept the facts they'd heard at face value.
"Ah......"
""".........."""
For some reason, Isolet and the main heroines, their faces pale, headed to the nearby operations tent with ghostly expressions.
"Ugh..."
People had dispersed for various reasons like that, but Perloché had stayed in the garden until nightfall.
Because after hearing that she had torn Frey to pieces, before anyone could even offer apologies or atonement, she had chased everyone out of the garden.
"My son..."
"Ugh, ugh..."
She couldn't bear to leave Abraham and Aria, who remained in the garden with dazed expressions.
"Um, excuse me..."
Feeling a guilt that made her want to strangle herself right then and there, Perloché slowly approached Aria, who was sitting on the ground.
"...Ah."
She soon stopped in her tracks, taking in the reason Aria was on her knees.
"Oppa..."
Frey's younger sister, who had once been consumed only with thoughts of killing him, was murmuring while caressing the dirt mixed with a sparkling energy—the only trace he had left in the world after being shattered to pieces.
Perloché, trembling and unable to speak to them, heard a haughty voice echo in her mind—the voice of the Demon God who had always encouraged her warmly until now.
"Eek..."
Her eyes filled with tears, she squeezed them shut and took one step forward, recalling the Sun God's request to obey the Demon God for now and buy time.
"A-Aria."
Then, in her view, she saw the mangled wound on Aria's knee.
A wound from when, upon regaining her sealed memories and hearing the truth from her father, she had run out of the house sobbing and fallen.
"F-First, the wound..."
Gazing at that wound, Perloché reached out with divine power as she always did for the sick or injured.
"...Huh?"
For some reason, no divine power came from her hand.
"Wh-Why...?"
With blood streaming from the knee right in front of her, Perloché panicked, not knowing what to do.
"...Saintess."
Aria opened her mouth in a soulless voice, and Perloché swallowed hard.
"What you said earlier... is it really true...?"
"Th-That..."
"That Oppa... chose rest over resurrection?"
"...Yes."
To Aria's following question, Perloché answered, feeling the harsh pangs of conscience.
"Then... I can never see Oppa again..."
Aria, stroking the sparkling dirt with dead eyes.
"...We can never talk again."
She murmured in a fading voice.
"""......."""
And silence flowed for a while.
.........
"I hated Oppa. No, it was beyond hate—I loathed him to the point of chills."
Aria, who had been sitting blankly for a while, broke the silence with a low voice.
"Because I thought he was the one who took away my two parents, whom I loved more than anything."
Then, she began her childhood story.
"When I was little, I fell seriously ill. It was so painful and agonizing that, as always, I called for Oppa."
As she said, young Frey had always blown on even the smallest scratches to disinfect them.
So Aria had thought her brother would rush over right away, blow magical breath on her, and smile purely.
"But for some reason, Oppa didn't show up for days. And neither did Mother."
Unable to receive care, she endured the loneliness and pain alone, barely overcoming the illness, only to hear shocking news soon after.
That her beloved mother had passed away.
"I heard that my mother had gone hide-and-seek in the forest with Oppa and died due to his mistake. It felt like the sky was collapsing."
As she said, Aria had lived immersed in immense grief for a while.
Even more so when Frey began to go astray after Mother's death.
And when Father fell into a coma years later, cleaning up after Oppa's deeds.
Her grief turned to hatred for Oppa.
"Saintess, do you know... what the real truth was, that I learned after regaining my memories?"
Thus, Aria, who had stabbed Frey in the back from the closest place.
Who had cursed him as a monster every time she saw him, thinking he stole her parents.
Who had tried to reform him until the very end but ended up setting aside her worries.
Was now desperately trying to hold onto the traces of the most horrifying person in the world.
By clutching the dirt mixed with Frey's bright energy in her hand.
Of course, the sparkling dirt merely slipped endlessly through her fingers.
"...Look at this."
Aria, who had been caressing the dirt for a long time, pulled out a worn diary from her bosom and handed it to Perloché.
"It's the diary Father gave me."
"Y-Yes..."
Aria spoke while looking at Perloché blankly staring down at the crude diary.
"Read the part I marked."
"...A-Alright."
To Aria's request, with various expressions crossing her face, Perloché began reading the diary with trembling eyes.
[My beloved little sister has fallen ill. I'm so, so sad. I wish I had gotten sick instead.]
"Th-This is..."
The diary entry, starting with worry for Aria, continued for quite a while.
Where the worries for Aria ended after a while, there was that message.
[So, I'll secretly follow! We promised to play hide-and-seek together, but it's been days already. If I help out, Mother will surely be happy, right?]
Perloché, having read the entire diary content and the postscript.
"...This?"
She began looking at Aria with trembling eyes.
"I wasn't sick—I was cursed."
"Yes?"
"The two black mages who killed Mother and turned her into a monster had cursed me and blackmailed her."
Perloché froze upon hearing that.
"If you don't want to see me die... become our test subject quietly."
Aria, looking at such a Perloché, began shedding tears drop by drop.
"Oppa... Oppa followed out of worry for me like that... and had the horrific experience of killing Mother who had become a monster, but I called such an Oppa a monster."
Choking back sobs, she poured out her story.
"And when Oppa was confined to the mansion... I helped assassins infiltrate it! For months, I made sure Oppa couldn't sleep peacefully in the mansion... that was me!!"
"...Ah."
"That's not all. I've done so many wrongs. Irreversible things...!"
Aria, blurting out words in confusion.
"I have to apologize. I can't send Oppa off like this."
She grabbed Perloché's legs and began pleading.
"I'm so sorry to Oppa who chose rest... but please, deliver my words. I beg you."
"I-I can't..."
"You can communicate with those in heaven, right? Just one word. Please, just one word..."
"...Aria."
To her, Perloché.
"I can't do it."
Answered with a wretched expression.
"Frey chose 'annihilation'."
".....Yes?"
Aria's eyes widened at those words.
"Earlier... didn't you hear? After I said Frey chose rest, what I added."
"Ah, aah..."
And upon hearing Perloché's following words.
".........."
Aria froze, at a complete loss for words.
"Hic, h-hic..."
After crying like that for a while.
"Oppa...!"
She collapsed onto the sparkling dirt Frey left behind and began sobbing uncontrollably.
"........."
Perloché sat blankly in front of such an Aria.
"Um... Lord Abraham."
She cautiously spoke to Abraham far away, but.
"Ah, Lord Abraham. Please, just... Ah?"
She soon stopped speaking and stood up.
"......."
Unable to bear the sorrow any longer, Abraham had already fallen asleep after smoking a powerful drug.
One that would take weeks to wake from after just one whiff.
"Ahh....."
Perloché gazed at him with a dazed expression.
And soon lost consciousness, collapsing there.
The last thing she heard in her ear was the haughty Demon God's words.
— Show me that hell.
.........
Meanwhile, at that time.
In the operations tent near the imperial palace.
"The Demon King's army has all been neutralized and collapsed!"
"Staff Officer Remerno's head was severed. And..."
"Breaking news: All newspapers in the empire have simultaneously received information on the empire's corruption and malfeasance...!"
Couriers arrived one after another, reporting the good news from across the empire where the battle had ended.
""".......?"""
But soon, the couriers could only panic.
"Um, everyone?"
Because most people in the tent were maintaining silence with ghostly faces.
"Memories."
Among them, Isolet, caressing the treasured sword at her waist that Frey had gifted her.
"Memories... are back."
Muttered in a soulless voice.
It was the moment when the memories manipulated by young Frey returned all at once.