For two years, Yuto had investigated the fall of the Kingdom of Belkain and the situation leading up to it, learning everything he could.

Belkain had fallen five years ago.

In his life before returning, that was when Yuto Belkain had been nine years old. His father, King Luke Belkain, had passed away.

It had been a sudden death from illness. Thus Yuto had become king at a young age, but even as he attended to affairs of state, he had enrolled at Maria Academy to pursue his studies.

That had been possible thanks to aid from Belkain’s brother nation, the Kingdom of Ristal. Ristal’s king had been a close friend of the late Luke Belkain, and that bond had carried on to their children.

What would have happened without the king of Ristal’s help? Yuto’s Kingdom of Belkain would probably have been badly shaken.

However loyal the nobles were to the royal family, they could hardly have faithfully served a naive nine-year-old child simply because he was their king.

With the king of Ristal’s help, Yuto had made it safely through his childhood. Drawing on the knowledge and connections he had gained at the academy, he had been able to reign as Belkain’s king.

All the while, he had investigated his father’s death. His father had been healthy, and his sudden death from illness had been suspicious in many ways. By then, Yuto had even learned the truth that Rufus Marigold, the head of House Marigold, had been poisoned. He had suspected that his father, too, might have been poisoned as part of someone’s plot.

While investigating his father’s death, he had discovered a box in a hidden compartment in the study.

Inside was a small book his father had left behind. It was no mere diary. It was an indictment of the constellations who watched the course of human history for their own amusement.

Not every constellation was devoted to humanity.

Some saw human lives as a play. They chose a protagonist, subjected that person to cruel trials, and delighted in watching a human struggle in despair. Sometimes, their protagonist was not a single human being. Even the rise and fall of kingdoms was decided solely for the constellations’ amusement, and so was the course of history.

His father had arrived at that truth, and a constellation had killed him while he was digging for more.

That was what Yuto had believed at the time, and he had sworn to avenge his father. He would punish the evil constellations who twisted the world to suit their desires and defeat every member of Eclipse, their alleged lackeys.

Shiro Ristal.

Though they shared no blood, he was as close to Yuto as a brother, and he had embraced Yuto’s resolve.

By hunting down every member of Eclipse, Yuto and Shiro had severed all the constellations’ limbs. The world had become more peaceful than before. All that remained was to hunt the evil constellations themselves.

Or so he had thought.

'Back then, I thought not all the constellations were evil.'

GRIND.

Yuto clenched his teeth.

'At least... I thought the Shattered Star wasn’t evil.'

The great constellation that protected Belkain’s royal family. Yuto had devoted his entire life to serving it. It had blessed his resolve and lent him strength on every battlefield. The Shattered Star had lit his path so that darkness would never fall upon it.

Yet at his most desperate moment, the Shattered Star had dealt him a devastating betrayal.

["Yuto Belkain. Your role ends here."]

The Shattered Star’s voice, heard on the night Shiro Ristal betrayed him. Its lightning had struck not Shiro, but Yuto and Flokiro.

'My... role...'

Yuto’s eyes wavered.

According to the information he had gathered over the past two years, in this world to which he had returned... there had never been a prince named Yuto Belkain in Belkain’s royal family.

He had vaguely suspected as much. When he returned, he had not awakened in Belkain’s castle. In this world, Yuto had been a boy from the slums. He had no memories of his parents. Perhaps, in this world, his parents did not exist at all.

The Yuto of today was a castaway who had wandered backward through time and washed up in a worldline where he did not exist.

Through that conclusion, he had arrived at the truth of why Belkain had fallen.

The world before his return.

His father’s sudden death.

A kingdom about to descend into chaos.

A young king, only nine years old.

It was a common, predictable scenario. The story of a young king growing through hardship.

Learning of a vast conspiracy in the world and vowing to avenge his father.

Facing the powerful villains known as Eclipse, the little king becomes a hero acknowledged by all the world. Then he meets a woman he loves, marries her, and has an adorable daughter.

At his happiest moment, the story turns into a tragedy.

Yuto’s life before his return had been a show for the constellations’ enjoyment. But in the present world, Yuto had not existed.

That was why Belkain had fallen. The great catastrophe that had struck Belkain five years ago—the lightning pouring from the sky and the massive earthquake—had been no natural phenomena. It had been the divine punishment the constellations had inflicted upon Belkain’s king. And that punishment had destroyed not only the king, but all of Belkain.

'Because I wasn’t here... Belkain fell.'

It could not be called Yuto’s fault.

Yet he felt guilty. He felt anger. Hatred. Countless subjects had died screaming in the space of a single night. Simply because their king had drawn close to the truth, Belkain’s people had been buried along with its royal family.

The weight of all that tragedy crushed Yuto’s shoulders. Clenching his molars, he glared at the ashes of the campfire, which had already gone out.

There was no need to light it again.

The ominous night was passing, and morning was coming.

* * *

Yuto had stayed up through the night with hardly any sleep, but he felt no fatigue. He had the stamina enhanced by his Status Window stats to thank for that.

“Are you feeling all right?”

The question, asked with no trace of fatigue on his face, left Levian bewildered. She had been chewing an herb to restore her energy. Taking out another, she tentatively offered it to Yuto.

“Do you... need one?”

“It can’t hurt.”

Yuto accepted the herb as he answered. He was not tired, but that did not mean he was in perfect condition. Especially since they would be entering Belkain proper today, it was best to be thoroughly prepared.

After eating the same meal as the day before and quickly washing their faces, the three climbed onto the driver’s bench.

* * *

The carriage crossed the Lasia Plain, now a red wasteland.

Only after traveling for several hours did it reach Belkain’s gates. Once hailed as the Kingdom of Steel, Belkain had commanded the east. These enormous gates and towering walls had never once allowed an enemy assault to breach them.

But the gates and walls now retained none of their former glory. Five years ago, on the night of the great catastrophe known as the constellations’ judgment, the natural disasters that swept through the kingdom had left ugly scars all along the walls.

The massive walls, dozens of meters high, had collapsed in places, and the watchtowers that had kept watch both inside and outside lay in wretched heaps.

Yuto regarded the gates with cold eyes. They were heavy doors that would ordinarily require dozens of strong men working a pulley to open. After hesitating a moment, Levian spoke to him.

“Let’s look for another gate.”

The gates could not be opened from outside.

“If tomb robbers and criminals have made their way inside, there must be another entrance.”

The scars of the catastrophe remained plainly visible on the walls. If they circled around, they would be able to find a gap large enough for people to pass through. Besides, opening the main gates and entering in plain sight would draw the attention of those hiding in the ruined city.

Levian’s suggestion was reasonable. There was no need to attract attention by insisting on main gates that would not even open.

“No.”

But Yuto shook his head. He knew her suggestion was reasonable, yet this was one thing on which he could not compromise.

“We’re going through the main gates.”

He climbed down from the driver’s bench and walked toward the enormous, tightly shut steel gates.

“W-wait, Yuto. You’re going through the main gates? How could you possibly open those...?”

“I...”

Yuto’s low voice struck the gates.

“Will not sneak in through some back way.”

Even if a man named Yuto Belkain had never existed in this world, he was Yuto Belkain, the last king of Belkain.

Levian stared blankly at his back. The words he had just murmured were almost a mutter to himself, not meant to reach her. Yet she felt the grief and resolve in them.

Yuto slowly reached toward the gates.

WHOOSH!

A pitch-black haze erupted behind his back. Two hands of Void Touch materialized in an instant and pressed against the gates.

Aether thrummed in his heart. As it flowed into the Void hands, they darkened further and swelled to an enormous size.

RUMBLE...!

Void Touch pushed against the gates. Steel screamed. The sound of a seal of death, shut tight for years, being forcibly torn apart echoed across the wasteland.

Through the slowly widening gap, Yuto sensed a powerful, lingering resentment.

Hearing the wails of those who had not survived the catastrophe five years ago, Yuto clenched his teeth.

CRASH!

Responding to his emotions, Void Touch grew even more savage. Rather than merely opening the gates, it shattered their hinges and hurled them far away.

“That’s impossible...”

Levian murmured in a daze. She already knew that Yuto’s inexplicable power was strong, but the brute force with which he had thrown open those enormous gates exceeded anything she had imagined.

“Let’s go in.”

Yuto steadied his breathing and returned to his seat on the driver’s bench. Emotion welled up at the realization that he was back in Belkain, but he could not let it show on his face in front of Levian.

“All right...”

Levian swallowed and nodded. The Iron Horses pulled the carriage through the gates—no, through the vast passage where the gates had stood.

At the sight that finally met her eyes, Levian drew in a sharp breath. The knowledge she had gained from Maria Academy’s textbooks felt meaningless. She covered her mouth and hunched her shoulders.

The scene was like a hell where time had stopped. A city ravaged by catastrophe. The wreckage of collapsed buildings lay scattered like bones. The stench was horrifying, too. It smelled like rotting corpses—perhaps it really was the smell of rotting corpses.

“...!”

Startled by a sound in the distance, Levian turned her head. Within the drifting purple mist far away, vague shapes repeatedly appeared and vanished.

They had human forms, but their limbs were damaged. Their faces were twisted in agony, their eye sockets empty, with no eyes inside.

["Why... us...?"]

["It’s... hot..."]

["I can’t... breathe..."]

They were the anguished spirits of the people who had died on the night of the catastrophe without even being able to scream. They did not directly harm the living, but, unable to pass on, they wandered the mist, crying out in pain.

Yuto stopped the carriage and stared at them blankly. Then, biting his lip, he jumped down and approached the mist.

“Ah...”

He drew close to the mist and reached toward the spirits. But just as his hand was about to touch them, their forms mingled with the mist and disappeared. His shoulders trembling faintly, Yuto clenched his outstretched hand into a tight fist.

“I’m... sorry...”

His voice trembled. Levian, who had followed him down from the carriage, flinched to a halt at the sound. But Flokiro did not stop. He approached Yuto, who stood rooted to the spot, and firmly took his hand.

Watching them, Levian sensed a bond between Yuto and Flokiro that she could never understand. And she sensed that the bond was by no means entirely beautiful.

'Perhaps, Yuto, you are...'

A suspicion occurred to Levian, but she could not bring herself to ask him about it just yet.