“My birthday...?”

Yuto narrowed his eyes, trying to discern the intent behind the sudden question. The subject had come so completely out of nowhere that even he, who had lived in a world rife with schemes and intrigue, could not begin to guess what Rufus was thinking.

Seeing a rare flicker of bewilderment from the usually unboyishly composed Yuto, Rufus let out a hearty laugh. Ironically, this was when he seemed most like a boy.

“It occurred to me while I was considering how to repay you. It would also give us a pretext.”

“A pretext... For what, exactly?”

Rufus set down his teacup. The seasoned merchant’s look returned to his eyes as he calmly continued.

“As you know, Maria Academy is, in principle, a cradle for the nobility. But for a very small number of talented commoners without a noble house behind them, there is a special scholarship admissions track, requiring either a noble’s recommendation or sponsorship from a foundation. Yet, Yuto, the world is not so kind.”

A self-mocking bitterness touched Rufus’s lips. He, too, was a noble.

“Most nobles write recommendations for promising commoners to enhance their own prestige. But that is not sincere patronage. Those students are merely ornaments for their patrons’ self-satisfaction.”

“...”

“Scholarship students admitted that way encounter invisible walls within the academy. The label of ‘a commoner fortunate enough to receive a noble’s charity’ becomes grounds for discrimination and contempt until the day they graduate.”

Yuto’s gaze grew still. He, too, had attended Maria Academy before his regression. He understood exactly what Rufus meant and what worried him.

“You saved my life and my house. I do not want you subjected to such treatment. That is why I intend to host a birthday party for you under House Marigold’s auspices.”

“A birthday party...”

“Yes. I will invite not only Merchant City’s leading figures, but all the foreign nobles with ties to Marigold. Before that gathering, I will publicly declare that you are not merely someone we sponsor, but the benefactor who saved me and my house. I intend to impress upon society that Marigold’s bond with you is genuine.”

“...”

“Then even the academy’s arrogant brats will not be able to treat you carelessly. Not all of them, of course. Among those sheltered noble children, there will be fools who think little of Marigold’s name—and highborn wastrels with enough standing to genuinely do so.”

Rufus raised both hands as if making a joke.

“But apart from those few, Marigold’s name will serve as a useful shield.”

Rufus’s consideration was meticulous. It was a well-meant offer to clear away unnecessary, troublesome obstacles before Yuto entered the new battlefield that was the academy. Yet after a brief silence, Yuto murmured,

“I appreciate your intentions, sir... but I have no birthday.”

“Hmm? No birthday...? Do you mean you do not know the day you were born?”

Rufus sounded puzzled. Yuto fell silent for a moment.

The blessed day on which he had been born a prince of Belkain belonged to a past already burned to ashes. And now, returned from beyond the threshold of death, he was someone who had never existed in this world.

“Yes. I... do not know when I was born. I was not even an ordinary commoner, but one of the destitute.”

In that answer, Rufus glimpsed a terrible loneliness that should never have belonged to a fourteen-year-old boy. At the same time, he sensed that it was not the whole truth. He was a perceptive merchant. He had already surmised that Yuto was no mere pauper.

But he could not pry into the reasons. Momentarily at a loss for words, Rufus stared at Yuto. Then, with a merchant’s characteristically stubborn smile, he tapped his fingers against the desk.

“Hmm. That is truly unfortunate... but it does not change the fact that you exist here before me. The person before me now is the one who saved my life, commoner or pauper notwithstanding.”

“...”

“It does not matter if you do not know your birthday. If you have none, why not make one? Merchants are a breed that creates demand where none exists, after all.”

Rufus chuckled and continued.

“Yuto. Is there a day you would like to make your birthday? A day important to you, worth remembering. Or even the day you resolved to redefine yourself. What we wish to celebrate is not your past, but your very existence here and now.”

Yuto met Rufus’s sincere gaze. He could feel the old merchant’s stubborn determination to give a boy who claimed not even to have a birthday some grounds on which to plant his feet in the world. That gaze brought to mind the day he had first opened his eyes on a shabby bed after his regression.

“In that case... I think two months from now would be good.”

“Very well. We will need time to prepare the party, so that is suitable.”

Rufus nodded in satisfaction and leaned back in his chair.

“I will make that day yours. With every resource Marigold possesses, I will give you the most splendid day in all of Merchant City. All you need do is stand there that day with your head held high. I will arrange everything else to perfection.”

Yuto smiled softly. He decided not to reject this kindness. And he decided to offer something in return.

“There is something I must tell you, sir.”

“Tell me? What is it?”

“It concerns my past.”

Rufus’s expression changed slightly. He straightened in his chair and regarded Yuto steadily.

“Your past? What about it?”

“Please send for Levian. You and she have shown me such kindness... I, too, would like to share a story I have kept buried in my heart.”

“Very well.”

Rufus nodded and pressed a button beneath his desk. Before long, Levian opened the door and entered, her head tilted in curiosity.

“You called?”

“Yuto has something to tell us.”

“Hm? About what...?”

“His past.”

Levian looked a little surprised, then broke into a bright smile and sat on the sofa.

“Are you finally going to share that secret you’ve kept so tightly under wraps?”

Back in Belkain, Levian had learned Yuto’s secret: he was the son of Luke Belkain, Belkain’s last king. It pleased her that he would now tell her father the secret she alone had known until then.

“It is hardly a great secret.”

Yuto gave a bitter smile and began.

“As you know, sir, I come from the slums of Ristal.”

“...?”

Levian’s eyes widened at the words that followed.

He had no intention of telling the whole truth about his past. He had told Levian about Belkain because she had witnessed too much of his distress there. What he intended to tell Rufus was strictly what had already come to light. Naturally, he would not mention his regression. Nor would he speak of Sariel or Belkain.

“I was born in those slums and lost my parents. I survived from day to day by begging and doing odd jobs, until slave traders abducted me and threw me into an underground colosseum in Oltea, a frontier city in Valistera.”

Probably.

No, Rufus undoubtedly already knew this part of his past. When Crimson Ringmistress had come, the only ones she had killed were the gladiators, the Evomon, Evil, and the jailers. The spectators and honored guests who had previously visited the colosseum had survived her.

Two years might have passed, but some would still remember the promising newcomer named Yuto. All the more so because Evil’s colosseum had been destroyed in a single day by the monster called Crimson Ringmistress. The patrons of Oltea’s colosseum would surely remember it with particular clarity.

“I did not spend long in the colosseum, but my memories of that place... are a nightmare I would rather not recall. And I was very... very fortunate to survive.”

“I know.”

Rufus let out a short sigh. As Yuto had guessed, he knew about his past. Even if Yuto had saved his life, he could not keep an outsider whose past was entirely unknown under his roof. And since he had even considered arranging a match between Levian and Yuto, he had naturally had no choice but to investigate.

Levian, however, apparently had not known this story. She could only stare at Yuto in astonishment.

“Crimson Ringmistress. That monster came there, I hear.”

Rufus murmured the words, giving Levian another shock. Crimson Ringmistress. A member of Eclipse, the seven monsters who sowed chaos across Callisto.

“Yes. I survived on that monster’s whim. Everyone but me... died at her hands.”

Yuto turned his gaze toward Flokiro, who sat beside him.

“I met Flokiro there as well. He threw himself in harm’s way to protect me. Crimson Ringmistress later reduced him to an Evostone, but I kept him with me all along and hatched him.”

“Thank you for sharing such a painful past.”

With a sigh, Rufus took Yuto’s hand.

“It must be something you do not even wish to remember.”

“I thought I ought to tell you someday. You and Levian have shown me so much kindness, even though I never spoke of my past.”

“Whatever your past may be, it does not change the fact that you saved my life. And it is hardly a shameful past, is it?”

“Thank you.”

Yuto bowed his head. After a moment’s hesitation, Levian took his hand just as Rufus had.

That brought the conversation to an end. As they left the study together, Levian kept glancing at Yuto, hesitant and unable to find words.

A pauper from the Kingdom of Ristal. An abducted slave gladiator. The sole survivor of a monster’s massacre. Yuto’s life had been a succession of hardships Levian had never even imagined.

Those were probably things he had endured while growing up outside the castle as Belkain’s hidden prince.

“Thank you for not saying anything,” Yuto said.

“I owe the head of House Marigold a great deal... but I cannot reveal the truth of my birth. So I would like that to remain a secret between us for now.”

“Ah... All right.”

Levian nodded slowly.

In the silence that followed, Yuto felt as though a heavy stone had settled in a corner of his heart.

He was thinking of the repercussions of the party proposed by Rufus Marigold, that kind, seasoned merchant.

The black-market merchants and Marketer, who had tried to assassinate Rufus and bring down House Marigold. The shadow pulling their strings.

Shiro Ristal, the hated enemy who had betrayed Yuto and driven him to his death.

'If the party announces my existence to the world, Shiro will naturally learn about me. No... perhaps he already knows.'

It was not just the Marigold affair. In Belkain, Yuto had wiped out Dark Star’s Black Mages and granted the restless spirits there a brief respite. There was a strong likelihood that Dark Star, too, was connected to Shiro.

'I have already ruined Shiro’s plans twice.'

The moment Yuto made his splendid debut as Rufus’s benefactor, he would no longer be a nameless figure hidden in the mist.

'A poisoned chalice, then.'

How would Shiro act when he learned about Yuto? Even Yuto could not be sure. Right up to the very end, he had never understood what sort of person Shiro Ristal was. Had he not learned even of Shiro’s connection to Eclipse only through Sariel’s letter?

'Sariel.'

Whenever that name came to mind, his thoughts tangled and his heart stirred uneasily. If he had never met Sariel—what would have become of him? Would the rampaging Void have devoured him because he could not control it? Might he have wandered the world without ever discovering who he was, only to die a meaningless death? Even if he had regained his memories, would ignorance of Shiro’s secret have left him in trouble?

Sariel’s help had played an enormous part in making Yuto who he was now. She had taught him much when he had no memories, helped him recover them, and told him Shiro’s secret.

That was precisely why he could not help questioning her. Just what was she, and what secrets did she hold, that she knew about Shiro? What price did she intend to exact for her kindness?

'She said we would meet again someday.'

Sariel was an alias, and she normally concealed the fact that she was a half-elf. It was therefore impossible for Yuto to find her by asking after the name Sariel. To see her again, he could only wait for her to come to him someday.

“...”

Yuto pushed aside the name that stirred his heart and turned his thoughts to Shiro.

He could not be certain, but to some degree... he could predict how Shiro would act.

'You... deceived me for decades.'

Yuto quietly clenched his fist as he walked down the corridor.

'You had so many chances—so very many chances—to betray me. But you did not. You waited until I was cornered in the most devastating circumstances, until I despaired, before betraying me.'

Why had Shiro betrayed him? That much, even Yuto did not know.

[“And yet all of this is ultimately for the sake of our promise. A world without hierarchy. An equal world with neither gods nor kings. My friend, have you forgotten our promise?”]

Yuto still did not understand the true meaning of the words Shiro had whispered on that terrible night. But Shiro’s betrayal had not been merely for sadistic pleasure.

'My despair and death were for the constellations’ amusement, but you have a purpose.'

Yuto stopped and looked out the window. The night sky was full of stars. He glared up at it and drew in the cold night air.

'Shiro Ristal. I... still do not know your purpose. I do not even know what you are.'

He had betrayed Yuto at the constellations’ bidding, driven him to despair and death, and still spouted that sophistry. Perhaps even those words had been a vicious deception—but if, if they had not been...

Perhaps Shiro, too, had been plotting his own rebellion against the very system of this world, ruled by the absolute authority of the constellations.

'Perhaps this is another delusion of mine. But I know this. Shiro Ristal. You... will not kill me immediately.'

The constellations loved humanity’s desperate struggles. They reveled in the agony of the moment when hope, blossoming amid despair, was trampled once more.

The very person who had foiled Rufus Marigold’s assassination and destroyed Belkain’s aether factory would make a splendid debut in Merchant City instead of hiding himself. What would Shiro and the constellations think of Yuto? Would they see him as an impudent little rat running wild, ignorant of his place?

'You will find me entertaining. You will consider me a player worth watching and try to give me more roles.'

It was a grievous humiliation, but also a priceless opportunity. While the constellations watched and enjoyed Yuto’s desperate struggle, he could hone a hidden, deadly blade beneath their gaze.

Shiro would likely be no different. The moment he identified the one who had interfered with him, rather than eliminate Yuto immediately, he would calculate how to incorporate him into his grand plan—or how to bring him to the most miserable possible end.

Just as Yuto, before his regression, had been betrayed at his happiest, most glorious moment and plunged into despair.

'If you intend to put me onstage, I will gladly oblige.'

If they intended to cast Yuto in the leading role, he could dance on their stage to their hearts’ content. And as he danced, he would unleash a great blaze. A blaze that would blind the constellations reveling in their sadistic delight and shake Shiro’s meticulous plans to their very foundations.

Their interest was a double-edged sword: a blade that threatened Yuto, and the only path by which he could reach their throats.

'While you enjoy my desperate struggles, I will prepare the blade that will pierce your hearts.'

Yuto turned away from the window and resumed walking. Sensing his resolve, Flokiro kept his mouth firmly shut.

Unlike Yuto, Flokiro was rather prone to emotion. That left him deeply worried about himself.

Once they entered Maria Academy, they would meet Shiro.

'When that happens... will I be able to hide my killing intent?'

Every time he thought about Shiro, Flokiro felt a surge of nausea that seemed to turn his stomach inside out. At the same time, he longed to tear Shiro apart, even though the man was nowhere before him.

But he must not. Yuto was not ready yet, and neither was Flokiro.

'By the time we enroll in the academy next year, I have to learn to control my emotions as much as possible.'

Should he take acting lessons? Flokiro heaved a sigh at the thought.

“It seems you put in a good word for me with your father.”

Yuto spoke, glancing at the silent Levian.

“Ahem. I only told him what I could.”

Roused from her thoughts, Levian cleared her throat, then glanced at Elun, who was following silently behind them.

“Oh...”

Elun’s outfit was entirely different from what Levian had seen before they parted earlier, and it was enough to draw an admiring exclamation from her.

“What is that reaction supposed to mean?”

At Elun’s chilly question, Levian closed her open mouth and heaved a sigh.

“If only your manners were as lovely as your face...”

“Do you have a complaint about my manners?”

“No, none. Truly.”

Sighing repeatedly, Levian turned around.

“This is good timing, actually. I’ll show you to your rooms. Let’s go to Elun’s first. The basic furniture is already in place, but if you need anything else...”

“What do you mean, my room first? Is my room not Yuto’s room?”

“What nonsense are you talking about?”

Looking utterly incredulous, Levian whipped her head around and glared at Elun.

“Of course you need separate rooms. You’re not a little child...”

“Yuto. Persuade that woman.”

Elun looked at Yuto, but this time he could not give in either.

“We are taking separate rooms.”

Elun’s eyebrow twitched at his firm declaration. After a moment’s consideration, she said coldly,

“Then at least give me the room next door.”

That was the furthest Elun was willing to compromise.