Zigor, who had been listening to Tristan's explanation, quickly added.
[But she was kind!]
[To Mori and Zigor, she was no different from a mother.]
Nadav, who spoke after Zigor, glanced at my knees. His gaze was directed precisely at Mori, who was curled up in a ball on my lap.
[She did an even better job as a parent than I did, so I was always grateful.]
A parent role, really? Surely her nature wasn't actually that of a nanny?
As I pushed down the rising anxiety within me, Minte said indifferently.
[Since she became a Dullahan, I suppose she won't complain about her knees hurting.]
"Ah, that's right! Now there's no need to pull out her white hairs either!"
Parides also chimed in with a cheerful laugh.
Listening quietly to their conversation, I harbored an even deeper sense of unease than before and carefully asked.
"……Is Soana an elderly person?"
I was genuinely curious what the selection process for these knights had been like. How could they have gathered such a diverse group of knights who didn't overlap in any way?
"She's not elderly, but she was in the process of becoming one."
Hearing Parides's explanation, I thought the former captain was quite a harsh person.
Not only did he deceive an innocent child who knew nothing, but he also worked an aging person to the bone?
[Soana would be hurt if she heard that.]
[Kyu!]
Ganic, who had been held in the baby Lizard Man's arms, scolded Parides in a dignified voice.
Then, when the baby Lizard Man lifted his shell and shook it up and down, Ganic slipped inside and found his center of gravity.
Seeing how familiar he looked at being played with, he must have played like that in the subspace. I was amazed at the paternal love of throwing his body to become a toy.
I was watching Ganic and the baby Lizard Man playing with fascinated eyes when Samuel, who had been standing apart, approached quietly.
"Could you spare me a moment?"
"Hmm?"
"I need to confirm the route to Beladria."
If we take in Soana here, there will be one remaining Dullahan, so we would need to confirm the route to depart for Beladria.
I glanced at the Dullahans who were busy chattering among themselves and lowered Mori, who had been on my knees, to the floor.
"Very well."
[J-Just the two of you?"
At those words, I stopped halfway through rising and stood awkwardly. Mori's urgently asking voice was so loud that the Dullahans, who had been busy talking among themselves, stopped their conversation and looked this way.
Standing somewhat awkwardly and receiving their gazes, I first nodded to Mori.
"Nothing will happen."
Mori looked up at me intently. Mori didn't say anything more, but just from those moist eyes, I could tell what she was thinking.
……Come to think of it, she said she remembers everything.
Unlike the other Dullahans who don't remember. Those horrible deaths.
I bent down and gently stroked Mori's head with my index finger.
"I don't lie. Nothing will happen."
After speaking firmly, I turned around. Samuel, who had been watching this from a little distance away, glanced at Mori.
Then he soon withdrew his gaze with an indifferent face. No emotion could be felt in that attitude.
The place Samuel led me to, suggesting we talk comfortably, was inside his tent.
"It's noisy outside."
He added a small cough as if making an excuse. Indeed, as Samuel said, outside was noisy with the chatter of all kinds of animals.
To Samuel, they would all sound like animal cries, but to me, they were all human voices, so it was rather better to have the space separated like this.
Without responding, I checked the map Samuel had laid out. The large map showed the Trevi mountain range, Beladria valley, and the Luejak family's territory.
As I was examining the locations closely with my eyes, Samuel, who had been quietly guarding my side, suddenly spoke.
"About that snake earlier."
"Mori?"
"Does she know who I am?"
I looked at Samuel by only rolling my eyes. Samuel's gaze remained on the map. However, he didn't seem to be particularly focusing on the map.
After a brief silence, I responded in a nonchalant tone.
"Yes."
"To what extent?"
"Everything."
"So you're being cautious of me."
"More than just cautious."
I chuckled and picked up a pen that was rolling nearby. There were so many place names that marking them with a pen would make it easier to see.
"I don't know where the remaining one is, but let's first consider the shortest route as priority……."
"I'm curious about something, but I assume you won't answer if I ask."
The hand that was about to move the pen hesitated. Samuel, who met my gaze, spoke with a calm face.
"About the past."
"The past?"
"Yes. How I treated you. With what eyes I viewed you. Things like that."
Hearing the explanation, I felt somewhat strange. The moment I heard Samuel's words, the last conversation between the past Samuel and the captain came to mind, making it even more so.
Tilting my head with a sour expression, I murmured as if talking to myself.
"Didn't you roughly remember?"
"My memories are fragmented."
Well, unlike the other Dullahans, Samuel would have repeatedly reincarnated completely. He became human like me. So his memories couldn't be intact like the Dullahans.
Unlike the Dullahans' memories that would become more complete over time, his memories would probably still be a spider web full of holes even later.
But why would he need to remember that? What Samuel needed to remember was only the duty given to him.
Guiding me to Beladria, that alone.
"You're curious about useless things."
What use could there possibly be in remembering past emotions?
"If I have memories…… wouldn't I become more useful?"
"Have you already forgotten how the past concluded, Sir?"
Actually, all I knew was the dream I had before. I didn't know how the Dullahans fell by Samuel's sword, or what the final scene Mori remembered and detested was.
The only fact I knew was that all those past emotions didn't need to be remembered and revisited.
"The first knight betrayed the master he served. There's no need to know a traitor's memories, and knowing them would probably just be an obstacle."
At my cynical reaction, Samuel tightly pursed his lips in a straight line.
"I have no intention of becoming your interpreter, so give up. Let alone the past?"
Good heavens, was he curious about that to ask a Dullahan?
At the absurdity of it, an empty laugh escaped me. If Mori heard this, she would immediately try to transform into a Dullahan and cut off Samuel's head.
No, with her tender nature, she might rather shed tears and go into convulsions. This seemed much more likely.
If such a situation occurred, I would probably take Mori's side. I don't really…… have a hobby of making children cry.
"Aren't you curious? Why I…… went that far in the past."
The expression 'went that far' sounded a bit funny to me. Because what he did was too terrible to be expressed in such brief words.
How terrible it was could be known without hearing anyone's testimony, just by objectively listing the events that occurred.
"I'm not curious at all. The object of that obsession wasn't me, was it?"
This time, Samuel fell silent properly. Then he didn't bring up any more topics related to it.
It was an uncomfortable but welcome silence.
* * *
The Empress awoke from deep sleep.
However, just in case, Heinley regularly sent the imperial physician to the Empress's palace. Fortunately, all the returning reports were opinions that she could rest assured.
However, after waking from sleep, it was said the Empress increasingly spent time sitting blankly in the garden.
At first, Heinley had presumed that lying down for too long must have been stifling.
'Now that I see her, I can certainly tell that wasn't the reason.'
Heinley, who had stopped at a slight distance, looked at the Empress visible in the distance.
The Empress was sitting at an outdoor table, and without even touching the teacup placed before her, she was endlessly gazing only at the rose bushes blooming in the garden.
A faint loneliness and gloom permeated her side profile visible at an angle, emotions rarely seen in the Empress who didn't easily show her feelings.
After hesitating briefly, Heinley moved his steps calmly.
Perhaps hearing the sound of Heinley approaching, the Empress glanced behind her.
"Is your body alright?"
"Thanks to you, I've improved much. You've worked hard taking care of even this mother in your busy time."
"You look tired."
"Do I?"
The Empress wore a faint smile. It was a smile so precarious it seemed it might go out at any moment.
"……They said you likely had a dream while you were asleep."
It was information Anelli had shared before leaving the capital. While handing over various materials from Roam, she had subtly mentioned that the Empress, who had been attacked by a monster, might have had a long dream.
After waking from that dream, she said one might feel a sense of loss or fatigue.
At Heinley's words, the Empress's expression changed subtly.
"A dream."
"If necessary, I will call priests to request healing. Divine power would purify your energy clearly."
At his gently offered words, the Empress wore a faint smile.
"It's fine."
"Still, to shake off vain lingering images……."
"I don't want to shake them off."
At that moment, Heinley hesitated.
"Because I want to feel this aftertaste a little longer, that's why."
The Empress's gaze turned to the roses again. The deeply colored petals were curled upward in elegant curves as if they might catch fire at any moment.
"It's a dream. It must have been a dream……."
The Empress's murmur, like talking to herself, was filled with regret and bitterness.
What kind of dream she had, he couldn't even dare to ask such a question. It felt like something terrible would happen if he made her recall that memory.
However, making Heinley's careful speech meaningless, the Empress was already deeply steeped in the past dream.
"If it was such a dream, it would have been better not to wake from it."
"Mother."
At Heinley's stiff calling, the Empress let out a small laugh.
"You don't have to call so fearfully. This mother won't confuse the reality she faces."
Heinley, watching her reaction, was able to guess at least this one thing.
The fact that the setting of the Empress's dream was certainly not the Imperial Palace.
"Monsters truly are fearsome things. To so easily bewitch people like this."