At that moment, Annelie wore a bewildered expression as if she had heard something she had never expected.
Mori, who had been carefully observing her complexion, continued speaking hesitantly.
"Before, Captain... you told me to do as I wanted, to do what I want to do."
"What I asked was about the rest you wish to obtain."
"Ah, but rest is peace."
So what Mori was saying now was also about rest.
About rest in the form that Mori desired.
"The authority of death is a power that liberates all things and leads them to rest peacefully."
Mori, who had been rambling, slowly raised her eyes to look at Annelie.
"I, I like living as a successor... it's comfortable...."
She wanted to become the successor of Annelie, the captain before her eyes, not the captain of the past. Because Mori had come to have many things she wanted to learn from Annelie.
She didn't think that Annelie couldn't give her the form of rest she desired.
Because she was the agent of death, and Mori, as the agent's successor, had encountered that authority closer than anyone else.
Annelie would definitely give Mori the rest she desired. So Mori just needed to ask for the rest she wanted.
"Captain, wherever you may be... can't I be there behind you, as your successor?"
The longer Annelie's silence grew, the more anxious Mori became.
Did I say something wrong? But the Captain definitely told me.
Not to worry about obligations or whatever, to just do as I please....
Ah, obligation.
Was that the problem? Mori realized belatedly.
The fact that after everything ended, Annelie might not need a successor.
So she hastily added an explanation.
"Su, successor is fine, but disciple is also good!"
Annelie's expression grew even stranger. Her distorted lips were closed in a subtle line that made it impossible to tell if she was smiling or crying.
Come to think of it, given Annelie's personality, she didn't seem like the type to take on a disciple. Should I have approached it differently from the start? If I had said I wanted to be a servant instead....
But Mori wasn't confident she could serve Annelie better than that red-haired mage traveling with her.
That mage's main job was cooking, yet he could even do magic—no, he was even useful. However, Mori had no great talent in magic or swordsmanship.
Mori's shoulders drooped more and more dejectedly.
Meanwhile, Annelie, who had been speechless and just moving her lips, finally let out a deflated laugh.
"Mori, come here."
"Y, yes!"
With a stiff body, she approached Annelie. Annelie, still with that strange expression, quietly gazed at Mori's face as she drew closer.
"I almost missed not seeing you."
"What?"
"Your face."
Mori looked at Annelie with a puzzled expression. As she lowered her angle to meet her gaze, curly hair that precariously blocked her vision poked Mori's eyes.
Annelie gently brushed up Mori's bangs. With her vision cleared, Annelie's smiling face came into view.
"You asked me if my face was unpleasant to look at."
"Ah...."
Had I said something like that...? It seemed like I had. So probably, it was not long after meeting Annelie?
"Actually, at first I thought about setting you free."
"S, setting free?"
When Mori's eyes widened, Annelie smiled with her eyes as if amused.
"Yes. If I had known you were this young and cute, I would have treated you more generously."
"Uh, um...."
"The rest you desire will come true, Mori."
Green light flowed from the hand that was stroking Mori's fluffy hair. It wrapped around Mori's entire body warmly.
It was a very familiar warmth. Mori unconsciously surrendered all her senses to the warm hand stroking her head.
The faint warmth that had enveloped him on the day he fell and was dying.
This warmth now was the same as that warmth back then.
'I see.'
Back then too, a fragment of the Captain's authority, as a final mercy, had enveloped him.
And now too.
"The day we meet again...."
It won't be too long, right?
The last words were swallowed by the green light and didn't come out as sound.
However, Mori vaguely guessed that Annelie's answer would probably be affirmative.
Because the face she saw last was so very gentle.
* * *
Along with the sensation of a massive power draining from my body, severe dizziness struck my head.
Someone caught my swaying body. They seemed to be shouting something, but I couldn't hear properly due to the ringing in my ears.
"Hic...."
It felt like something heavy was pressing on my chest, making my breath short and stifled. I bent my upper body and took a deep breath with my mouth wide open.
It felt like someone had forcibly blocked my breath. How hard must I have breathed to stabilize my breathing again?
"Lady Annelie, Lady Annelie!"
My spinning vision returned to normal, and the ringing disappeared.
I, who had been gasping while clutching the front of my clothes, finally straightened up.
"This is...."
I felt a slight trembling in the hand wielding the authority. As I stared blankly at it, I felt a strong force from my arm.
It was Zenon, who had been supporting me all along. When I unconsciously tried to refuse the support, he applied force to not let go.
"Please rest a bit."
"...No, I'm fine now."
"But!"
"Really."
Even the slight trembling in my hand gradually subsided. I clenched my fist and looked up at Samuel.
He was within my reach, and I guessed he must have approached to catch me when I was about to collapse.
Having barely calmed the fretting Zenon who kept whispering to rest, I asked Samuel:
"You know, don't you, Sir?"
"Know what?"
"Why I keep collapsing like a straw doll like this."
This strange phenomenon had started since I began granting rest to the Durahans. So Samuel, who was once a Knight of the Round Table, must be connected to this.
As I expected, instead of saying he didn't know, Samuel remained silent with a somewhat pale complexion.
Standing still as if hesitating to speak, just as I was about to urge him, he slowly parted his lips.
"It is because the granted authority has been almost entirely consumed."
"Almost entirely consumed?"
"Yes."
Samuel continued in a dark voice, his gaze slightly lowered.
"The authority of death is not infinite, and from the beginning, you only possessed enough power to complete the final authority."
"The power to bestow upon the Durahans was included in that process, right?"
"Yes, that is correct. The Knights of the Round Table were those who should have obtained rest long ago."
"Originally there were twelve Knights of the Round Table, and I gave rest to ten knights."
At my pointing out, Samuel hesitated. I observed his expression closely.
"Unlike the past, two are missing. So isn't this ultimately incomplete?"
Samuel did not answer.
Could he be planning to interfere with the realization of the final authority again, even at this late stage?
When such suspicion arose, my expression naturally frowned. However, before I could interrogate him, he offered an answer first.
"...That is correct. And one person's share of the two portions of authority has already been realized."
"Realized?"
I had indeed been recklessly using authority on plant-type monsters all the way to Belladia Castle....
While I was looking back with a wry expression, Samuel let out a quiet sigh and spoke.
"Your resurrection."
"...What?"
"Your resurrection after being beheaded at the guillotine. That was the goddess's mercy and the authority of death."
I involuntarily raised my hand to touch my neck.
The scar from where it had been severed and reattached still remained on my nape. A trace of my past that I hadn't noticed while being tormented by various matters.
"After the failure of the final authority, how many lives do you think you lived?"
That... probably many. The era the Durahans spoke of with one voice was, in fact, the primordial world.
The result of struggling to become independent from the gods and achieving an incomplete success was this current world, wasn't it?
Even taking Diaris, the first emperor of the empire, as a standard, it was a distant past.
"Do you know why the authority of death only activated now during the repeated reincarnations?"
"Because of Lilia."
Lilia. The woman who drove me to a desperate situation. As it turned out, she was the agent of birth, a puppet following the thread of fate recited by her god.
At the monastery, I heard a woman's voice. It must have been the goddess, and she definitely said that time that had stopped due to the 'thread of fate' was flowing.
"Because the puppet of birth appeared. Birth must exist for death to exist. The two authorities must mesh together to complete one whole life."
Samuel's words seemed clear yet ambiguous.
"In the past, you destroyed the statue at Febin Monastery to liberate the knights and obtain the authority of birth. The thread was a medium that condensed the authority of birth, so it was an appropriate choice."
"But I didn't destroy the thread this time."
Dasha said Lilia was the thread of birth. Then do I have to wait until Lilia dies?
Anyway, Lilia would have been arrested for treason, and she would receive an execution date in a few days.
So do I have to wait here at Belladia Castle until Lilia's execution is carried out?
Will the authority of birth come to me even if I don't kill her myself?
My head became complicated with the suddenly revealed facts. Shouldn't he have told me this important information earlier?
Samuel must have been full of intention to hinder me.
"You don't need to worry about that. The situation is different from the past."
Can I really trust Samuel's words?
Once suspicion arose, it didn't easily subside. However, even if I distrusted him, there was nothing I could do now.
I had already come to Belladia Castle and given rest to ten knights.
"So you're saying there won't be any problems because of that consumed authority?"
"Yes. You have taken Lord Diaris's place."
That was fortunate.
By this time, my dizzy head had completely recovered, and I stood straight, free from Zenon's support.
When my head became clear, the questions I needed to ask also properly flowed out.
"Then what about your share, Sir?"
Samuel closed his mouth again.
"What about your rest, Sir Samuel?"