I moved quickly.
In order to approach it, I moved quickly.
A dream that I wanted to seize.
Happiness that I wanted to get a hold of.
But why did I want to get a hold of it?
Why did I want this?
I can't remember.
Even though I sacrificed so much for that dream.
I can't remember.
Even though I killed so many for that dream.
I advanced too far.
Even if I look back to the past, I can't remember anything, as I advanced too far.
♦
By the time he realized it, Ryner had vanished.
"......"
Sion didn't see it.
No, surely no one saw it.
But he understood what had happened here.
Because he understood.
"......"
His breathing was...
Sion lifted his face.
On that face, a smile brimming with confidence arose.
A king's face.
He turned to the soldiers, bows still in place, and spoke.
"The menace has fled. It's our victory!"
His breathing was...
The soldiers all cheered at once.
Though they didn't understand what had happened, if their king said they won, then it was their victory.
It looked as if the enemy had been terminated in the storm of arrows. To most of the soldiers, the enemy...
It would seem like they defeated that monster.
The soldier's cheering soon turned into an ovation for Sion.
Their benevolent ruler.
Hero King.
Everyone called him that.
There, Ferris looked at Sion.
"... King... huh?"
Saying only that, she turned to behind him.
And she started to walk away.
Sion, at that...
"... Hey, Ferris. I..."
However,
"What Ryner said was right. You aren't to blame."
"No, that's..."
He was interrupted...
"What you wanted to protect..."
At that point, her voice disappeared.
Lost amidst the voices that praised the king, it disappeared.
Before long, she could no longer be seen amidst the soldiers.
And nobody criticized him.
Sion turned towards Ferris, who'd already disappeared, and murmured.
"... 'If that's the case, you aren't at fault?' "
That's obvious, isn't it?
He thought that.
I'm the king.
Listen to these voices.
Listen to these voices praising me.
Nobody is criticizing me.
I didn't make a mistake.
Because I'm the perfect king.
As for Ryner... That was necessary, after all.
Only that.
Who could criticize me for that?
Who would criticize me for that?
At that, he remembered the words Ferris said.
And he remembered the expression Ryner had at the end.
A face that looked as if it were about to cry, begging for forgiveness.
Even though I was the one who hurt him...
Nobody...
Nobody, to me...
"... I can't... seem to breathe..."
He said in a voice as if he were going to be sick, but it didn't reach anyone.
It was lost in the voices of praise that buzzed in Sion's ears.
However, as that became too loud, the feeling grew further away.
Coming closer, that was...
♦
Ten days later.
♦
Ferris had already returned to Roland.
As usual, in the morning.
As usual, she was chatting with the shopkeeper in front of the Wynnit dango shop.
Every morning, Ferris would chat with the shopkeeper and sample some food as her daily routine before her journey.
Thus, upon returning to Roland, that was unsurprisingly her normal morning.
All of it truly was typical.
Before her journey, each day after day was the same.
Nothing changed.
There was no lack of anything.
To Ferris, who was sampling dango, the shopkeeper asked,
"How is today's flavour?"
In response, while stuffing her cheeks wth dango, Ferris nodded.
She tried to say that the flavour was perfect.
The flavour had gotten better than from before her journey.
Perhaps this dango was the closest to the ultimate dango, if such a thing existed.
She thought about that manner of things.
In that case, was there anything more she could wish for?
Then, staring at the Ferris with her cheeks stuffed with dango, the shopkeeper asked with a nervous expression,
"But Lady Ferris, are you going on another journey to find the ultimate dango?"
To those words...
Ferris, with her cheeks full of dango, looked down at her feet.
There lay, prepared by the shopkeeper beforehand, seven tightly packed backpacks of dango.
Then Ferris looked up at the sky.
Without a cloud in the sky, the sun rose.
Today's weather would surely be nice.
There was practically no better weather for dango.
It would be nice to have a dango party with Iris, Arua, and Kuku in the Eris house garden.
As she thought, there was nothing that she lacked.
Nothing that she could wish for...
However, she gulped down the dango.
Lifting up the seven backpacks at her feet,
"... No, today I'm going a journey to find and punish a fool."
After saying that, she...
With a faint expression that nobody would be able to read, she smiled.
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