[Gasp!]
Mori, who had naturally thought he was alone in the room, startled and pulled his head back.
Someone stood leaning against the doorframe with arms crossed as Minter entered.
"What do the other knights need to remember?"
It was Anelli.
[C-Captain.]
Facing Anelli's cold gaze, Mori felt his body involuntarily shrinking, curling himself even more tightly.
Anelli, who had been looking down at such Mori, slowly entered the room.
The two escort knights who always followed her when she moved were nowhere to be seen.
After closing the door, she brought a chair and sat before Mori.
"If you won't follow me, you may leave whenever you wish. However, if you influence my knights in any way, I won't let you off easily."
I-I......
Flustered, Mori stammered.
"If you have complaints about me, say them directly. Don't go stirring up my knights for no reason."
She was clearly drawing a line between Mori and the other Dullahans.
In the first place, it was Mori who had acted coldly the moment he first saw her. However, being treated this way, sorrow welled up, and Mori answered with a choked voice.
[I am a K-Kround Table Knight. Following the Captain is my duty.]
"The one you serve is the 'Captain of the Past,' not me. So you don't need to fulfill that duty toward me."
[But Captain is Captain.]
"You think of her and me differently, don't you?"
At those words, Mori's eyes widened slightly.
Anelli's words were accurate. Mori didn't think the person before him was the Captain he had followed.
She was a completely different person. Because his Captain...... had lost her authority and become human.
[......You are different.]
At Mori's powerless reply, Anelli smiled, baring her teeth.
"You know what? I don't feel bad about those words."
Using the armrest as support, she rested her chin on her hand and said in a gentle tone with narrowed eyes.
"Rather, I'm glad."
[S-So it's true.]
"True?"
[The Captain didn't a-actually want things like authority. That's why she forgot everything and became someone else.]
At Mori's words, Anelli's smile faded slightly.
Gazing quietly at Mori, Anelli asked in a lowered voice.
"Did she tell you that?"
"The Captain......
Mori couldn't bring himself to finish. Emotions surged in an instant, and he felt that if he continued speaking, he would burst into tears immediately.
Why don't the other knights remember?
Why do I remember everything?
This was the question that had tormented Mori ever since he opened his eyes. Why must he remember everything.
The blood-splattering moments of that day, the screams, the betrayal and despair—all of it.
[The Captain...... wanted to be liberated.]
"Liberation?"
[By exercising the final authority, to become free......]
Mori envied the other Dullahans.
The other Dullahans who were simply immersed in the joy of meeting the Captain again.
Would it have been better if he too had lost his memories? If he couldn't remember their end, could he have laughed at the reunion?
If he didn't remember how Zigor died...... If he didn't remember how Zigor died confronting the enemy to protect the Captain.
He wouldn't have gotten angry at Zigor who now blindly defended the Captain.
[Having lost the authority, she has now found the freedom she wanted. So she doesn't care about anything anymore, right? It d-doesn't matter to her anymore.]
Anelli gazed at Mori without answering.
Mori continued through his tears.
[That's why she keeps that traitor by her side so indifferently.]
A strange light appeared in Anelli's eyes.
"......You recognized Samuel?"
[I remember e-everything.]
The first knight who had secretly loved the Captain. Only the person herself didn't know of his feelings.
The knights had supported and cheered for his earnest love. They had encouraged him that someday his feelings would be rewarded.
But what returned was a cold blade and a chilling betrayal. The memory of that time was so vivid, yet now the knights faced that traitor as if nothing had happened.
Horrified, Mori had told Zigor the truth. Did he know who that man was? Did he know who the Captain kept by her side?
What had Zigor said then?
"If it's the Captain's will, it's fine. She must have a reason."
Zigor said such things because he didn't remember. Because he didn't know how he himself had died by that blade.
[I wish I had never woken up at all.]
Rather than seeing the Captain who lost her authority and became a completely different person, and the comrades who lost their memories and acted carelessly, it would have been better if he hadn't awakened.
Depressive emotions rushed in like a tidal wave. Mori buried his head again, the one he had barely raised.
He didn't want to do anything, and no motivation rose within him. When he first opened his eyes, he thought he should perform the unfinished authority himself, but after being severely beaten by some monster, even that no longer appealed to him.
Rather, just like this......
[Argh!]
Mori's curled-up body suddenly floated up.
Anelli had grabbed Mori's head and lifted it up at once.
Holding Mori up to meet her eye level, Anelli spoke clearly.
"As you said, I don't want to care about anything. Whether the world perishes or not, it has nothing to do with me, and I have no interest."
Surprised by her rather violent action, Mori couldn't even think of resisting. He dangled in the air, held by his head, facing Anelli.
"But despite that, I will complete the final authority. If I need a traitor's help for that, I'll accept it without hesitation."
At those words, Mori opened his mouth in bewilderment.
[W-Why?"
"Because I want to find heads for my knights."
Her purple eyes were cold and unfamiliar, just as she had appeared over the past few days.
"Because I want to see their faces directly as they cry and laugh looking at me."
Yet somehow, from that cold gaze, Mori recalled the Captain of the past.
His kind Captain whom he had always respected, who gazed steadfastly ahead without wavering to fulfill her duty.
"And I don't leave unfinished business to others. One bears the responsibility of one's choices myself. I don't know what your Captain left to you, but you don't have to do it."
Having spoken firmly, Anelli frowned and added.
"So make up with Zigor. Even if they say children fight and become closer, you're too ancient knights to be called children, aren't you?"
Mori couldn't say anything and just remained frozen.
At Mori's appearance, Anelli clicked her tongue low and set him back down on the floor. Unlike earlier when she had lifted him without hesitation, her touch was careful.
Even after being set on the floor, Mori was still dazed.
"Samuel will guide me to the Belladia Valley. The Goddess gave him a chance. It's an arrangement out of necessity, not that I've accepted him as my knight. Even if you want to kill him, I cannot permit it. So leave if you want to leave."
Returning to her original posture and resting her chin on her hand, Anelli paused to breathe, then added briefly.
"Make up with Zigor before you leave."
[......Why?"
"You said you were close with Zigor. It would be troublesome if you leave and he blames himself afterward."
Mori couldn't say anything.
Certainly, the woman before his eyes was different from the Captain he knew. The Captain wasn't this violent, nor this harsh.
But......
"What? Don't want to make up either?"
When Mori didn't readily answer, Anelli asked with a dissatisfied face. Even then, when Mori remained silent, she looked over Mori with a somewhat anxious expression.
"Did you get hurt somewhere? Did I grab too hard?"
[I, I was the Captain's successor.]
At Mori's sudden confession, Anelli halted. A complex emotion briefly crossed her eyes, but it was fleeting.
"Whatever she left to you, forget it."
[But she t-taught me how to handle the authority.]
At that, Anelli scoffed and crossed her arms.
"If you could have played the role of the Goddess's proxy, I wouldn't have resurrected in the first place. Since no one can replace me, I'm the one suffering through this now."
Cursing at someone about playing a babysitter role that wasn't in her fate, Anelli spoke in a sullen tone.
"Just do what you want to do. Don't worry about obligations or whatever."
Mori unconsciously opened his mouth.
He had been the Captain's chosen successor, and he had always been proud of that. The fact that he was chosen by the Captain was his pride and honor.
Not once had he thought that there was an option in that position.
It was such an honorable mission that he was busy just being grateful to accept it.
"Did I say it difficultly? You don't have to diligently love all things. If there's something you want to hate, then hate it. For example, that scammer monster who hit the back of your head this time. Or me. Hate as much as you want, leave and do what you want to do and live."
At the words telling him to leave, his heart felt like it was dropping.
Mori unconsciously blurted out in a desperate voice.
[T-Then I'll keep being the successor.]
Perhaps because Mori's answer was unexpected, Anelli frowned and fell silent for a moment.
"......Where did my words go?"
[D-Do you hate seeing my face?]
At Mori's question, Anelli hesitated. She seemed to recall something she had missed, pressing her temple and muttering quickly.
"Ah, to realize the final authority, I need to find your head too? Then I'll call you when we find the head, so go play somewhere appropriate. You don't have to go around together...... why are you crying?"
Only after hearing Anelli's question did Mori realize he was crying.
Even if asked why tears were coming, Mori had no answer. He didn't know why he was crying either.
But the tears wouldn't stop.
He had no hands to wipe them away.
Looking disturbedly at Mori who was just shedding tears without making a sound, Anelli pressed her brow with her index finger and asked.
"Are Round Table Knights originally this teary? Or did tears increase after becoming a Dullahan?"
Naturally, Mori couldn't answer. He just shed tears, drop by drop, from sorrow he couldn't identify.
And Anelli, while clicking her tongue, stayed quietly by his side until Mori's tears stopped.