“That is?”

“Just because.”

“Just because?”

“When you come here to play, you see lots of different things. Then you learn about markings as I mentioned earlier. And that these things don’t just appear randomly.”

When someone loses consciousness or dies.

Or when they suffer comparable harm.

If not that, then when they use their special potion.

“Then what should we do?”

“If this was meant to be a one-time attempt, they would have fled already. The fact that they’re still here proves they haven’t achieved their goal. In that case, they’ll surely try again, right? I heard that even outside, people with poison resistance like the executives here are rare. So they won’t give up easily just because they failed once.”

“Mmm……”

“Rodi, if they couldn’t hide the poison in their clothes, where do you think they hid it?”

Rodi’s brow furrowed in thought.

When Lexiard opened his mouth and pointed inside with his finger, Rodi’s eyes suddenly lit up.

“Inside their body?”

“Yes, but since we can’t use poison, I’ll get the special potion they use.”

“From where?”

“It’s in Uncle’s room. I saw it before. If we use that, it will appear.”

The marking, that is.

“Ah.”

“If we find both the marking and the culprit, we can eliminate the cause. Then we can play comfortably, just the two of us.”

“Yes.”

Lexiard grabbed Rodi’s shoulders and turned her toward the direction where the man had disappeared.

“Let’s use bait. And we’ll catch them.”

“Bait?”

Lexiard stretched out his hand and pointed.

There was Ekision, approaching while cheerfully waving his hand.

Oh no, it’s Ekision.

Since they were caught, they should hurry back up, but Lexiard remained calm.

Moreover, since he was still holding her shoulder, she couldn’t run away alone.

And she wasn’t the type of person to be so disloyal.

Rodi stayed still, watching Ekision cautiously.

“But I don’t want Ekision to be in danger.”

“Hmm, then should we do it by ourselves? Anyway, if that suspicious person shows the marking, it means they’re the culprit. When that happens, tell me and I’ll take care of it.”

“You will, Lexiard?”

“Yes. I have responsibility too. You’ll let me handle this much, right?”

By now, unless she was a fool, Rodi knew she couldn’t solve this alone.

Rodi nodded.

“Yes, please help. But what if you get in danger too?”

Just then, Lexiard suddenly looked up.

His gaze reached the top of the last staircase, the third floor.

“It’s okay. Uncle will save us.”

He had the look of someone definitely seeing someone, but when Rodi looked up, there was no one there.

Was Lexiard right?

Lexiard nodded as if telling her to just trust him.

“Well, if they try to escape before that, they’ll be tracked immediately, so there’s nothing to worry about. They’ve never let someone escape like that. At that point, you just need to confirm the culprit’s face.”

“What if they do escape…?”

“If they let them escape, it would mean Uncle is incompetent. Or the people assigned to pursue them are incompetent.”

Lexiard said this without any change in expression.

She had always thought he was expressionless, but this time Rodi felt something slightly off.

“……”

“What I’m saying is, you don’t need to blame yourself, Rodi. Being wary of others here is natural.”

“But I want to become comrades.”

If we have to be wary of others, how can we get closer?

While the two were whispering, Ekision approached closer and closer, narrowing his eyes and pointing at both Rodi and Lexiard with each hand like a predator.

“Hey now. What floor is this? What did I say would happen if you didn’t listen~”

When Ekision suddenly grabbed both of Rodi’s cheeks with a “wah!”, she burst out laughing in surprise.

“I-I’m sorry! I won’t come down anymore.”

“Good thinking. The atmosphere is a bit dangerous for a while, so let’s put up with it for a few more days, okay?”

Ekision spoke while lightly carrying Rodi up to the second floor.

Lexiard followed behind them.

“Ekision.”

“Yes?”

“…Is Gemvil really not coming back?”

Rodi asked while being carried suspended in the air.

Ekision smiled as he reached the second floor and slowly lowered her until her feet could touch the ground.

“No, he’ll be back soon. He has nowhere else to go anyway. He just went out trying to act cool, so he’ll be back soon.”

“He has nowhere to go?”

Ekision shrugged his shoulders.

“This place is basically home for Gemvil. Now then, shall we go get some snacks?”

***

Still dark before dawn.

Gemvil, who had been sleeping like the dead in his bed, started groaning in distress.

“Rayleigh!!”

“Brother!!”

“No!!!!!!!!”

“……gasp!”

Gemvil shot up as if struck by lightning.

“Gasp, wheeze, gasp…!”

Like someone who had nearly drowned, Gemvil hunched over clutching his chest, and took rough, desperate breaths as if he couldn’t breathe.

“Wheeze, wheeze……”

After a long while, Gemvil finally caught his breath, slumped down, and covered his eyes with his hands while taking a deep breath.

“Haah……”

He had a nightmare after a long time.

A dream of the day he lost his sister.

***

Cortea, now a fallen nation.

It was a country where all four seasons were green, with beautiful seas and coral islands.

Gemvil was born in Cortea.

Cortea, a small country not even 5% the size of Ulria, was a nation that survived on beach tourism, artworks made from processed coral, and exporting Tetez, a unique mineral that only came from Cortea’s coastal mines.

Although not a magic stone, Tetez, which had self-luminous properties, sold for very high prices and was popular even on the continent.

Gemvil’s parents were also nobles who held distribution rights for Tetez, and Gemvil began formal successor training from the age of ten.

“I want to stay with brother too!”

“No, Rayleigh. You need to attend your etiquette lessons!”

“But brother doesn’t have to.”

“Gemvil already completed all of that even before he was your age.”

His parents got along so well that he had never seen them fight.

His sister Rayleigh, four years younger and exceptionally close to him since childhood, would always run away from her etiquette lessons and try to join Gemvil’s successor training sessions, showing how much she adored him.

But perhaps because Tetez was too popular.

War broke out in the year Gemvil turned twelve.

It was an attack from the Allied Nations that shared their border.

All of Cortea burned, and the Allied forces quickly seized control of Cortea and began indiscriminately attacking Corteans.

Cortea fell helplessly, and the Gemvil family mansion by the beach wasn’t spared either.

All nobles were purged, and even commoners were treated as if they meant to eradicate them completely from the area.

When Gemvil’s parents heard the news of the capital’s fall, they successfully managed to escape quickly to protect Gemvil and Rayleigh, but they met their deaths before crossing the border.

“Never separate from your sister. Do you understand?”

“Please, Gemvil. No matter what happens, you must survive!”

Gemvil crossed the border with his sister Rayleigh along with other escapees.

Their destination was the Empire of Ulria.

It had always been a popular destination for Cortean students abroad, being a vast land where many different ethnic groups lived.

“Eat. You need to eat now so you won’t get tired and can keep going.”

“We’re fine.”

“Young ones like you need to eat more. You can’t fall behind because you’re hungry. We adults will be fine.”

With food being scarce, Gemvil and Rayleigh received much help from the adults traveling with them, and they endured well despite hunger and lack of sleep.

However, as they crossed the border, an unexpected rainy season began, and after several days of non-stop sudden downpours, Gemvil and his sister Rayleigh were held back.

“Just endure today. Once we cross here, we’ll be at the Ulrian border. We can get help there. Just hold on, just a little longer.”

Just one last mountain to cross and one last bridge to cross before reaching the Ulrian border.

Though the bridge wasn’t very high, it was dangerous with the continuous rain of the wet season and the pitch-black night.

But they had to move.

It was even more dangerous during the day.

“Rayleigh!!!”

“Brother!!”

It was a sudden accident.

The bridge that the first team of three adults and Rayleigh were standing on suddenly broke, and they fell straight into the river.