Chapter 13.4

“Diashi, are Zen and Lusell with you right now?”  

—Yes! Both are right next to me!  

“Then please tell Zen and Lusell that the real Riela is inside here. It’s urgent.”  

She asked because she couldn’t figure out what to do alone.  

She couldn’t keep running like this, so she had to hope for an answer.  

—Wait, wait. What? Miss, what are you saying?  

Then, apparently passing the communicator, Zen’s voice came through.  

“It’s exactly as I said. The real Riela is here, so I’m being chased as a witch. Isn’t there some way? I really can’t figure out what ‘original sin’ I’m supposed to solve……”  

Brienne’s brow furrowed.  

She’d been thinking about it, but Riela had committed so many sins she couldn’t even guess.  

After Arthur escaped, Riela burned the entire village, caught the fleeing people, and threw them into the sea.  

She granted revenge to all who followed her.  

The story written in the last remaining Riela book was nothing but evil.  

But it didn’t seem Demekia was referring to those sins.  

As Brienne and Herace walked along the wall, relying on the communicator, another voice sounded.  

“Vision and original sin… What do those mean?”  

Brienne, startled, turned around.  

Arthur.  

Arthur had followed them under the wall and was looking up at her.  

‘……No.’  

‘Had the communicator already cut out?’ 

Brienne quickly looked around. But, unbelievably, the world was still frozen.  

In a world where all life had stopped, only Arthur was moving.  

Just like Herace, who stood beside her.  

Herace’s hand tightened around Brienne’s shoulder.  

“It seems the worst future I imagined has become reality.”  

“Then……”  

Without needing further explanation, Brienne understood Herace’s words.  

Arthur—meaning, that man really was Kaiden.  

Brienne asked in a trembling voice.  

“……Kaiden, is it really you?”

* * *

“Did you enjoy the spectacle?”  

Herace asked with a crooked smile. His sharp gaze was fixed on Kaiden, who was staring at Brienne’s back with a troubled expression.  

“……”  

<Herace, go talk with him.>  

<I’ll wait up ahead. I have nothing to say to Kaiden.>  

After fleeing the temple and climbing the mountain path, Brienne soon spoke firmly and left the area.  

Thanks to that, only Herace and Kaiden remained in the thicket. Brienne stood not far away, turned with her back to them.  

Herace glanced at Kaiden, noting how his gaze only followed Brienne, and blocked his way.  

“Kaiden Bannon. Honestly, I’m surprised. You complained about how poor Brienne’s escort was, yet you just stood there watching.”  

Of course, Herace didn’t think Kaiden hadn’t helped Brienne at all.  

After first encountering Riela, they’d been able to escape thanks to his help.  

But in the recent situation—  

The fact that Kaiden had just watched until Sally’s light nearly struck Brienne made Herace stumble over his words.  

At those words, Kaiden lowered his gaze and sighed.  

“……Sorry, but I couldn’t move either. It’s not that I didn’t try to help. Of course, I hesitated, struggling to accept all this.”  

Kaiden paused, then let out a bitter laugh.  

“Until you and Brienne suddenly showed up, I thought this place was just a dream.”  

“……A dream?”  

Herace’s eyes narrowed at Kaiden’s words, which sounded anything but normal.  

“So you’re saying this isn’t your first time here? How long have you been here?”  

Herace frowned, but Kaiden didn’t answer. Herace pressed again in a low voice.  

“Answer honestly, Kaiden. How often, how long have you been in this vision?”  

“……I don’t really remember.”  

He didn’t remember.  

Herace sighed at such a blatant dodge.  

“Fine. Then what happened to the real Arthur?”  

“He doesn’t exist when I’m here.”  

“You know that doesn’t make sense.”  

“……Sorry, but it’s the truth.”  

Finally, Kaiden looked Herace in the eye and rolled up his sleeve, showing the inside of his arm.  

“As you noticed, this body isn’t mine.”  

His smooth skin, hidden under his clothes, didn’t have a single scar. But Herace remembered Kaiden’s arm should have had scars.  

“Is this enough proof?”  

Kaiden pointed to his arm and rolled down his sleeve.  

Glancing around at the still-frozen world, Kaiden continued.  

“……The Myth of Roeta.”

Kaiden sounded as if he couldn’t believe it himself.  

“Ever since I read that book, I’ve had this dream. Whenever I slept, I woke up here. Every day, in different places, but always with the same appearance. Except people called me Arthur.”  

For a dream triggered by reading a single book, it was too much.  

Herace’s brows twitched slightly.  

“You must have realized something was wrong. Didn’t you ever doubt this wasn’t just a dream?”  

Kaiden didn’t answer.  

But Herace thought he knew the answer.  

Because Brienne Ford was here.  

Because Riela, with the same face as Brienne, was here.  

That alone would have made Kaiden not care about anything else.  

Realizing this unpleasant truth, Herace’s smile turned cold.  

“Hey, Kaiden.”  

The more he remembered Brienne’s resolute attitude, the colder Herace’s smile became.  

“As I said, this isn’t your dream. It’s Demekia’s vision.”  

“……”  

“If you understand what kind of situation Brienne is in, I hope you’ll cooperate as much as possible.”  

At those words, Kaiden hesitated, then slowly nodded.  

“Then let me ask you something first.”  

Herace’s eyes turned to the base of the mountain they’d climbed.  

“There seem to be facts different from the myth I know. Why do the Holy Knights, who should serve Riela, obey Sally instead?”  

Kaiden raised his head and stepped closer to Herace.  

At some point, he had returned to the emotionless Kaiden Bannon.  

“There’s a power the Priest is hiding—Riela’s power.”

“……”  

“The very power we call magic.”  

Magic.  

Herace recalled the question he’d always had.  

The ‘holy power’ that made people believe in an intangible god was said to be the love of the deity granted only to those with deep faith.  

Then, what about magic?  

Where did that power come from?  

And why couldn’t it overcome holy power?  

It seemed the answer, which no one had ever solved, was hidden in this vision.

* * *

While Herace and Kaiden were talking, Brienne tightly gripped the communicator and listened to Lusell’s explanation.  

As she listened to details about the prophecy and Miragium that Lusell had interpreted, Brienne’s expression grew darker.  

“Repetition… Wait, does that mean I could die?”  

—……  

“Lusell?”  

—……We won’t let you die. We promise.  

Lusell and Zen didn’t give a clear answer, but Brienne immediately understood what they meant.  

She realized she really could have died just moments ago.

Brienne had vaguely believed that since this was an illusion, she would not die here. That was a truly naïve thought.  

If that was the case, she needed to get out of here even faster.  

Brienne turned her gaze to Herace, who was just finishing his conversation and approaching her.  

The repetition of fate.  

If the god wished for a childish game of house, then she would show them the perfect ending.  

“Did you find the answer you were looking for?”  

At Herace’s question, Brienne nodded and put down the communicator.  

The light from the communicator went out.  

“First, I’m going to try to stop Riela from sealing Arthur’s soul.”  

Because that was where everything began.  

All the disasters that destroyed Roeta started after Arthur, turned into a bird, became a decoration in Riela’s bedroom.  

Even if Kaiden, now Arthur, had no intention of running away with another woman, there was no telling what might happen next.  

So it would be good to prevent such things, but right now, the most important thing was to prepare for what would come after.  

Garzen’s voice, showing her the Miragium, echoed in Brienne’s mind.  

<White birds are symbols of the soul. In Roeta myth, every human who dies returns as a soul in the form of a bird.>  

<The bird that flies up like that rises to the sky and is reborn. That’s called reincarnation. Past lives and reincarnation. You’ve heard of them?>  

Past life and reincarnation.  

And the repetition of fate.  

Then what about changing Arthur’s pitiful fate, the one Demekia pities?  

Riela not only took Arthur’s life but locked him in a cage so he could not even be reborn. She really didn’t want to use that method……  

“I think we’ll need a birdcage. To keep Riela from trapping Arthur’s soul.”  

According to the myth, Kaiden—no, Arthur—dies because of Riela’s greed. And Arthur’s soul is unable to reincarnate, forever trapped in her bedroom.  

So Brienne intended to catch Arthur before Riela could, so he could be reborn.  

However.  

“……If it’s a birdcage you need, I know where to find one.”  

The answer came not from Herace, but from Kaiden. Brienne looked at him a bit awkwardly.  

“Where is it?”  

“That Priest you saw earlier keeps birds behind the temple. If you sneak in, you can steal a birdcage from there.”  

“……”  

To have to return to that temple again.  

Brienne nodded reluctantly.  

“All right.”  

Then she turned to Herace.  

“Before we go back to the temple, we should prepare not to get caught this time. We can’t just get caught off guard again.”  

But at that moment, Kaiden stepped forward.  

“I’ll go.”  

“……”  

Kaiden’s unreadable gaze fell on the communicator hanging from Brienne’s neck.  

“It’s safer for me to go than for you and Herace, who can only move while that thing is working. Unlike Riela, I can go anywhere freely.”  

“……”  

‘No, Kaiden.’

She meant to say, ‘this is to trap you, who will become the bird.’  

But Kaiden’s voice cut her off before she could speak.  

“Sorry, but I can’t wake up from this dream anyway. Since you came in, no matter what I do, my soul can’t leave this place either.”  

“……”  

“It’s not about sacrificing myself to help you.”  

Kaiden reached his hand out to Brienne.  

“So give me the key.”