For these reasons, he had naturally accumulated information. About where she usually spent her time, which places in Castle Cream she had never set foot in, and so on.

But now… the direction they were heading together was the latter.

A place where, as far as he knew, she had never stepped foot.

‘Saena, you…’

The interior and exterior of Castle Cream, where the Kramer family’s descendants had lived for over hundreds of years, was unimaginably vast and had many secret places.

There were quite a few places whose purpose would be unknown without someone’s explanation, and this old tower that Saena was looking up at was one of them.

The old tower in the west.

This place, which the heads of the family usually called the ‘West Tower,’ should normally have been invisible like the ruins above the lake.

Yet she found this place without hesitation.

He couldn’t understand the things happening to her, these situations at all.

‘Though it doesn’t matter much since I don’t intend to stop her just because I don’t understand…’

Still, the question came out.

“Did you come knowing what this place is for?”

“I didn’t know originally. But now I do.”

The answer didn’t help him understand any better.

As if sensing his inner thoughts, Saena added with a small smile.

“While I was asleep… I saw.”

“This tower?”

“Yes. Someone who… spent a very long time in this tower…”

A long time in the West Tower? Someone from the past? Did she see an ancient person who created the ruins as a result of awakening? Did they live in the Kramer family?

Such thoughts naturally flowed through his mind.

But Saena’s expression wasn’t simple.

Though tears didn’t fall, her eyes were moist and trembling, clearly overwhelmed with intense emotion. It wasn’t just empathy for seeing fragments of someone’s life, but rather emotions that she herself seemed to have felt and experienced directly.

Deeply missing someone, and deeply saddened by something…

Was that outburst of crying right after waking from the spring actually directed at someone else, not herself?

It was a sudden premonition that crossed his mind.

“When you woke up…”

He couldn’t help but ask.

“May I ask why you cried?”

Because of that person? May I ask what relationship you had? Perhaps… were you… close?

Words he couldn’t bring himself to say out loud were swallowed back, but they didn’t disappear. They clung to his mind as anxiety.

“When we find Yolly…”

She said, looking at him.

“I have something to tell you.”

And that wasn’t an answer to the question he had asked.

His heart tightened at her expression that seemed to be recalling some profound sadness, but he couldn’t ask more.

“…Yes.”

He could only pray that whatever she had to say wouldn’t be cruel to him.

* * *

They opened the door and climbed the tower.

To the top floor of the West Tower.

When he first learned of this place’s existence as a kind of inheritance passed down to the head of the family, he had visited once to check it out but only briefly looked around a few floors below and left. Since each floor was mostly similar in its library format, he hadn’t felt the need to see more.

As such, this was his first time coming up to the tower’s top floor.

‘…So this is what it was like.’

Unlike the lower floors, the top floor was a living space. It contained a desk and chair for working, as well as a cot and storage boxes.

‘Something feels strange.’

He felt something odd as he surveyed the top floor’s interior. Not because of the unexpected nature of it being a living space, but because there was some kind of strange sense of déjà vu.

‘Someone with violet eyes here…’

Here…? What?

Constantine was rather startled by the sudden image that came to mind.

Who with violet eyes? What did they do here?

What was causing this nonsensical sense of déjà vu that made the combination of this place and violet eyes feel familiar?

He had absolutely no reason to feel familiar with this place.

This was a kind of secret archive.

It was a place for storing the memoirs of successive heads of the family and records passed down through generations.

Ancient power that they no longer knew how to implement protected the tower, and for his part, he fulfilled his role as head of the family by visiting once a year to inject Guardian Spirit power into the marker stone to maintain that barrier.

As it would inevitably contain many sensitive pieces of information including the family’s dark secrets, entry was forbidden even to successors unless they were the head of the family. Even he only learned of its existence after the succession process was completely finished.

But even after learning of its existence, he had no intention of reading its contents. He wasn’t even interested.

Already disgusted by the atrocities of the previous Duke and Duchess, he could guess without having to go to the trouble of looking.

That there would have been countless more terrible and horrific things throughout the generations.

He didn’t want to dig those up and dwell again on past agonies.

As such, it made no sense that this place felt so familiar to him.

And yet, violet eyes…

‘Is it because I came with Saena?’

Though this must surely be his first time entering, watching Saena move about as if somewhat familiar with the place made him wonder if that’s why he felt the same way.

Feeling curious about the inexplicable sense of déjà vu within himself, he looked at Saena, wondering if he might find an answer.

However, Saena seemed to be seeing something separate from him, yet similar.

That distant gaze, those touches, like she’s tracing memories.

She appeared to be following her fingers along objects, tracing what must be some memories she was recalling.

Along the bed, along the bookshelf, along the chair.

Though thick dust built up over time clung heavily to her white fingers, she didn’t seem to mind.

And finally, her hand lingered for a long while on top of the desk.

“Here you…”

Though her wistful murmur was quiet, it pierced clearly into his ears.

Here you? Who was she talking about?

As he strained his hearing hoping for more words to follow, Saena’s tone suddenly changed.

“…Huh, huh?”

Saena hurriedly picked up a notebook that was lying on top of the desk.

“…This can’t be.”

Then she trembled in disbelief.

“…Saena?”

White dust flew up from her hurried motions of flipping through the notebook.

“Why… is this… here…”

Her voice shook as she expressed incomprehensible questions.

The notebook fell with a thud from her unsteady movements. Constantine reflexively grabbed her waist.

What could this notebook be to cause such a reaction?

“You should sit down.”

Though he doubted the stability of the chair that had been here for who knows how long, when he tested the backrest’s sturdiness it seemed still okay. When she sat, only dust rose up, without any creaking sounds.

But since the dust around her had been bothering him for a while, he used his Guardian Spirit power to create air pressure and blow the dust away.

Though it wouldn’t reduce the amount of dust swirling in the enclosed space, he was satisfied that at least her immediate vicinity was cleaner.

But then Saena suddenly stood up again.

As if she had discovered something else, she began frantically rubbing the desk’s surface with her hands.

“…Saena? You’ll hurt your hands.”

“Ah…”

There were traces that had been hidden beneath the thick dust.

There were scribbles on the desk.

A series of crude geometric shapes.

They looked like they had been carved with something like a knife rather than written with a pen.

“Soon…”

But Saena murmured while touching each scribble one by one.

“I’ll… come back…”

As if reading letters rather than scribbles.

Plop plop plop.

“S-Saena?”

Then Saena suddenly started crying. He awkwardly tried to comfort her, taken aback by the sudden turn.

“D-don’t cry. Why…”

“Huu… uu…”

Seemingly overwhelmed, Saena suddenly rushed into his arms.

“…Saya?!”

Her slender body collapsed into his embrace.

Her trembling hands desperately clutched his collar before breaking into sobs.

“Huuuuuuuuuh!”

Like before, he couldn’t push her away as she wailed in near hysteria. His heart felt like it was being torn apart by those crying sounds.

He carefully held her sobbing body in his arms, choosing areas where skin wouldn’t touch.

“Don’t cry…”

When you cry, I…

“Tell me what’s wrong. I’ll… I’ll fix it.”

“Huhuhuhu…”

“Please… stop crying…”

He wanted to swallow her whole to stop her from crying anymore.

But in reality, it was a situation where he had to worry about touching her inappropriately.

It was too miserable that he had to worry about the boundaries of contact rather than comforting her as she cried like this, yet he was also glad that she would throw herself into his arms like this when sad.

Then again, his throat tightened, not knowing for whom she was crying like this.

What a wretched emotion.

In the storm of conflicting emotions, contrary to his feelings, all he could do was hold her waist through her clothes, afraid she might faint from crying.

“…Saya?”

But she suddenly stopped crying after sobbing for a long while.

Then she pulled away from him, picked up the notebook she had dropped earlier, spread it on the desk and began frantically turning the pages.

“Not here… Not this either…”

After flipping through for a while, she stopped somewhere and started muttering something.

Even from what little he could hear, it wasn’t Imperial language. It seemed to be Arlesian.

What on earth was she reading?

“…Saena? What is this…”

No sooner had he formed the question than the air itself suddenly became heavy.

Constantine reflexively raised his power. He felt like he would be swept away by the weight of the air itself if he didn’t.

— Kyaaak!

And as soon as he drew on his power, Caligo started screaming.

— N-no! Master… Get out… Get out now!

What’s wrong with this guy now?

But there was no time to ask why.

Before he could do anything, rays of light burst forth from the front. As if the light rays had physical force, he was pushed backward.

He tried to somehow grab hold of Saena as he felt himself being forcibly separated from her, but his hands just swept through empty air.

He felt himself being pushed away as if being corroded and dissolved by the light. Even his consciousness seemed to be consumed by the intense light.

Barely resisting it, his lips twitched.

‘Sae…na…’

The name his vocal cords couldn’t complete faded into the light rays.