Samuel glanced at Anelli's smoothly moving arm movements and slightly pursed his lips.
"You're quite skilled."
"I only did this sort of thing until I died. You're surprisingly skilled yourself, more than I expected."
In truth, Samuel had deliberately requested a dance when a song that didn't require changing partners came on.
The piece was slow and long.
Long enough to allow for conversation.
"I learned a little as part of proper education."
"Excellent for mere education. High society overflows with gentlemen whose skills are worse than this."
Anelli responded cynically and rolled her eyes.
The moment Samuel noticed her gaze directed at Xenon standing alone, he twisted his body to block her view. It happened to be a section where they made a large circle across the floor.
"I'm curious how much you've remembered."
At those words, Anelli's attention focused entirely on Samuel.
He had expected as much when he brought it up, but seeing the effect directly, Samuel felt satisfaction beyond his expectations.
"I haven't remembered anything."
Anelli answered curtly. Then she lowered her gaze. Her neatly placed eyelashes trembled slightly.
"I just saw. Fragments of the past."
What were these fragments she saw? Samuel became curious. Among his incomplete memories, was there a scene he could share with her?
"And you? Do you have memories?"
"I think... it would be more accurate to say I acquired them."
"How far?"
"Who I was, what I did, and what I had to do in return."
How else could he describe it except as confusion.
At the monastery, through the authority that had responded to Anelli, Samuel had also regained a large amount of information in a short time.
However, rather than remembering, it was more accurate to say he had acquired content he encountered from outside.
"And what I must do now."
"You're... him as well."
Anelli's expression strangely sank. She looked at Samuel for a moment before withdrawing her gaze again.
For some reason, her gaze not looking at him made impatience rise up, and Samuel opened his mouth as if making an excuse.
"I betrayed you."
"No need to explain. You betrayed 'her,' and 'she' was disappointed in you."
His excuse couldn't continue properly. Whatever she had seen, it seemed the fact that he was the first knight to betray her had been clearly conveyed.
Anelli glanced up at the silent Samuel, thought for a moment, then added softly.
"Thanks to that, I'm standing here now."
Her words were very unexpected.
"I'm grateful to you. If it weren't for your choice, I wouldn't exist."
The eyes gazing at him were straight and firm. Through them, Samuel could tell. That she was sincere.
"But separately from that, you won't be forgiven."
Even seeing Samuel's wavering gaze, Anelli didn't stop speaking.
"I can't forgive you. I'm not her, so I don't know her despair."
It was an explanation that was almost cruel.
"There's no one left for you to betray. So if guilt remains in you, consider it karma and bear it."
"I don't consider you identical to her."
"But the emotions you hold are merely remnants of the old past."
Anelli's voice was firm.
"Nothing else can explain it."
"You speak as if you know what my feelings are."
"You loved and worshipped her. So isn't it too obvious?"
Anelli muttered indifferently and turned her gaze away. Since it was time to release hands and separate, the conversation was interrupted.
Samuel, unable to take his eyes off Anelli's movements as she elegantly fluttered her skirt, stepped forward quickly.
He caught her waist slightly faster than the beat and opened his mouth with a somewhat urgent tone.
"But..."
"As I said, that's not me."
Samuel knew it well. Even in his own thinking, the woman before him was completely different from the woman in his memories.
The agent of death who existed at the beginning was a philanthropist who loved all things, tender-hearted yet firm in her convictions.
But the woman standing before him now was extremely secular and selfish, indifferent and cynical about everything.
Reincarnation allows the soul to exist but doesn't bring back the same person.
Then who are these feelings directed toward? He himself hadn't distinguished them yet, so how could Anelli be so certain?
"They could be directed at you, not her."
"You? Towards me?"
Anelli laughed softly as if she'd heard something ridiculous.
In that moment, an illusion arose as if small flower buds were bursting around her.
"What feelings could you harbor toward me? Curiosity? Pity?"
Of course, Samuel admitted that his first meeting with Anelli wasn't exactly good. The reason he developed deeper interest in her was also because of Anelli Roam's situation, which was worse than expected.
But curiosity or pity alone couldn't put him in this position. At the very least, Samuel knew well that he couldn't be like that.
Noticing Samuel's resistance, Anelli added with a smile.
"You might have mistaken curiosity or pity for love. Our relationship is unusual, after all, so with lingering attachment from the past added, how intense might it become."
"You think I love you?"
"Not me, but her."
Anelli breathed the words out like a sigh. Samuel couldn't say anything to her as she gazed up at him steadily.
"I think you worshipped and desperately desired her."
Samuel's expression stiffened. At this very moment, he felt a question that couldn't be resolved by the word love being resolved all at once.
Ah, desire.
"After the betrayal, when she wouldn't look back at you, you took on endless reincarnation to somehow make amends."
The romantic and beautiful word love wasn't enough. These feelings of Samuel's. It was a desire he had never thought he would encounter in his life.
"But Sir Samuel, there's no one who will accept those feelings. There won't be in the future either."
However, what Anelli didn't know was that Samuel's desire didn't stem solely from the foolish betrayal of the past.
'Perhaps this is.'
Samuel pressed his lips together tightly. It was a truth that should never come from the mouth of one who had sworn to serve a god his entire life.
"I won't block your duty. The monastery work, and probably guiding me is the role given to you, so do that."
The dance piece had reached its end.
"First, after finding the other knights."
The fluttering hem settled calmly, and finally the instruments stopped playing.
Anelli held her skirt and bowed lightly, catching her hot breath. Samuel also bowed his head to her.
"...Yes, I will guide you to Belladia."
He spoke calmly, hiding his emotions as he lowered his gaze.
"Your rest will also be there."
On this journey, everyone will find the rest they desire.
Except for Samuel alone.
Samuel's desire would never be fulfilled. He easily realized this fact.
That this was the eternal punishment he had taken on by betraying her.
* * *
I slowly blinked and fixed my gaze on the scene visible in the distance.
I had expected that someone would approach Xenon, who was left alone.
'But I never thought that person would be Lilia.'
I could see Lilia, with her followers in tow, speaking to Xenon with a sweet smile.
The followers stood surrounding Xenon as if to block any escape route, and thanks to that, Xenon at their center looked like a delicate stray cat targeted by a beast of prey.
Of course, that didn't mean Xenon was trembling or intimidated. Rather, he stood with a cold expression he had never shown me.
'What on earth are they talking about?'
After the dance piece ended, I deliberately moved slowly.
Since hearing their conversation from a distance wasn't difficult anyway, as long as the surrounding people didn't make noise and focus their attention on me, eavesdropping was easy.
"Little sister isn't a research subject."
Hm?
"The Magic Tower would probably find this problem very interesting. I've heard the rumors too. Scholars who dedicate their lives to research, they say. I understand how amazing little sister's case would seem."
"I already told you that's not the case."
"But if that's not the reason, there's no way to explain why a guest from the Magic Tower came so unusually. You said it yourself earlier. You came because of little sister."
Lilia put on a deeply troubled expression. I also saw her followers chiming in from around them, trying to soothe her.
"Surely the Magic Tower didn't conclude that sister is an undead, did they?"
"Excuse me?"
"When I asked the palace mages, they said the only way a living being comes back to life is by becoming undead. Otherwise, no magic existing on earth can revive someone who was... beheaded."
Lilia naturally brought up that my death was a 'beheading.' The followers shuddered and mentioned my evil crimes that had been publicly announced.
"Besides, for monsters to behave so obediently... They say there's a hierarchy among monsters. Undead are said to be very high in rank."
At Lilia's words, her followers exclaimed in alarm and shuddered with fear. Xenon, looking at them with dismayed eyes, tried to speak patiently.
"It's true that there's a hierarchy among monsters, but..."
However, Lilia, naturally, didn't seem to have any intention of listening to Xenon's rebuttal.
"Of course, it's true everyone is trembling with anxiety. Still, we can't send little sister to a laboratory. Little sister is precious family."
Lilia's skill at cupping her cheek and demurely casting her eyes down was truly exquisite. She knew well what angles and expressions drew emotion from people.
She even seemed to have improved significantly compared to before.
"Oh my, Lady Lilia, to protect her even after going through such hardship!"
"Good heavens, to be so soft-hearted!"