The moonlit escape continued for some time.

Since Dieta was the only one whose face was known, Najin could move relatively freely. He procured food from nearby villages and checked the knights’ movements, adjusting their escape route little by little.

It was not particularly difficult.

Though he had the injured Dieta with him, their circumstances were twice as good as they had been in the underground city. Sometimes they spent the night in the forest, sometimes hidden in an alley, continuing their flight.

And so the fourth day arrived.

“About that...”

Deep in the forest, Dieta suddenly spoke as she watched Najin striking the mineral lamp he had taken out.

“That’s quite an unusual mineral lamp, isn’t it?”

“Is it?”

“The ones adventurers carry aren’t that color. Nor is their output so weak. Judging by the frame holding the mineral in place, it looks like an old model...”

“You know quite a lot about them.”

“My trading company deals in them.”

Dieta shrugged.

“Where did you get it? The light is rather nice. I’m thinking of getting one myself.”

“My hometown. You’ll have trouble finding one. It’s fairly cut off from the outside world.”

“I suppose the Rangers of the Techel Mountains use those, then?”

“... Pardon?”

Najin blinked.

Dieta smiled brightly. She spoke as though she knew everything, however much he pretended otherwise.

“I know all about it. You’re from the Techel Mountains. No wonder you’re so skilled. With stealth skills like yours, how could you be anything but a Ranger? At this point, it’s certain...”

“You’ve got it wrong.”

“What?”

His tone was firm. It did not feel as though he was lying.

Dieta blinked, and Najin spoke calmly.

“I don’t even really know where the Techel Mountains are. And I’m not from anywhere that impressive. Well, you would be surprised if you heard...”

He let out a long breath.

“But I don’t want to reveal it just yet.”

“Is that so?”

“It’s not a particularly nice place.”

“I’m sure you have your own circumstances.”

Dieta asked no more questions.

It was just as it had been in Cambria. Neither delved too deeply into the other, and their conversation came to a natural end. Dieta did not dislike these light conversations, but...

“You know...”

Was it because the moon was shining?

Because they were spending the night deep in the forest with only a single mineral lamp to rely on? The strange circumstances nudged Dieta forward. Sitting on a suitably sized rock and swinging her legs, she looked at Najin.

Her vivid yellow eyes gazed at him.

She had not put her fallen mask back on. She was facing the man before her as Dieta, not the Snake That Swallows Gold.

“Would you listen to a little of my story?”

Dieta took a step beyond where their conversation had ended.

She was not sleepy yet, the night was deep, and she wanted to talk a little longer.

2.

Dieta, the Snake That Swallows Gold.

She had never confided her story to anyone. That was only natural. To her, everything in the world was an enemy, and telling her story was no different from revealing her weaknesses.

It was a kind of defense mechanism, a wound carried by a child who had been forced to grow up too soon.

She could survive only by being meticulous. She could trust no one, and she had to use everything. That was why Dieta wore a mask and never revealed herself. She had been that way ever since her seventh birthday.

The snake who had always lived that way took off her mask, set everything aside, and began to talk about herself. Deep into the moonlit night, before a mineral lamp casting a soft, sunset-colored glow, Dieta spoke of her life.

“That’s how I lived,” Dieta said.

“That’s how I’ve lived all this time. Honestly, I don’t regret it. Climbing higher means trampling someone else, after all. I don’t regret that, but...”

She smiled as she looked at the dim mineral lamp.

“Wearing a mask, hiding myself, living like that... sometimes I find myself wondering.”

Her smile was bitter.

“If I live like this, where am I in all of it?”

And a little sad.

“You asked me before, didn’t you? What my goal was. When I told you it was to gather gold coins, you asked what I would do with them.”

“I did.”

“Back then, I dodged the question by saying I wanted to increase my worth.”

Dieta smoothed down her hair.

“The truth is, my goal was revenge.”

“I see.”

“Yes. I wanted to swallow heaps of gold, raise my worth higher and higher... and become a snake so enormous that I could swallow even the ducal house.”

Najin quietly listened to Dieta. She did not seem to be speaking because she wanted a response.

“I thought that if I swallowed the ducal house and crushed it, I could be compensated.”

“For what?”

“The time I had to spend living behind a mask. The things I had to endure. The moments I had to laugh off, bury inside, and simply swallow down. I thought I could be compensated for all those years.”

“Foolish, isn’t it?” Dieta murmured.

“Crushing the ducal house wouldn’t bring that time back...”

She let out a long breath and looked up at the sky. Gazing at the moon hanging in the night sky—the moon she had looked up at over and over in the ducal house’s villa—she smiled bitterly.

“It really is foolish, isn’t it?”

“What’s foolish about it?”

“... What?”

Dieta lowered her head.

Najin’s eyes were looking straight at her, glowing with the same sunset hue as the mineral lamp.

“Some people say revenge is foolish. That you get nothing back from it. That’s all bullshit. What do they mean, you get nothing back?”

Najin gave a scoffing laugh.

“Endure it, break the cycle of hatred... what kind of fucking nonsense is that? Doing that doesn’t wrap your shitty past up into something pretty.”

His words came out harsh.

The hound who had lived in the underground city began to speak in raw, unvarnished terms.

“Even if you gain nothing from it, you’ll feel better once you’ve had your revenge. Isn’t that reason enough?”

Najin lowered his gaze to the sunset glow of the mineral lamp. Bitterness briefly crossed his eyes. Just as the moonlit night did for Dieta, the lamp’s artificial sunset glow brought back memories of his past.

“I’m the same. There’s someone I have to take revenge on, once I’ve climbed high enough—somewhere no one can dismiss me...”

The Order of Star Radiance.

Swallowing that name unspoken, Najin continued.

“Because I feel like that’s the only way I can move on to what comes next.”

“What comes... next?”

“Whether I smash them, burn everything down, or trample them... I feel like I have to put a definite end to it somehow before I can move on.”

Next. What came next?

Dieta suddenly looked at herself. After growing large enough to swallow the ducal house, what then? She had never considered it.

“What comes next... I don’t really know yet.”

“It’s not something you need to think so hard about.”

Najin looked at Dieta.

“You don’t have to wear a mask all the time, do you? Sometimes you can take a breather. Do what you want. Get angry if you feel like it. Live like that, and it’ll come to you naturally. At least, what you want to do next will.”

He smiled.

“That’s how it happened for me.”

The two kindred people looked at one another.

Following Najin’s example, Dieta smiled.

“That looks good on you. You should smile more often.”

“D-does it?”

“Why are you stammering?”

“Because you said it looked good...”

“Pardon?”

“... Nothing.”

Dieta let out a long sigh.

She stretched languidly and relaxed her shoulders. Then she spoke, almost casually.

“I think I’m enjoying myself a little right now.”

“That doesn’t really fit our circumstances.”

“Even so.”

“On that note,” Dieta continued.

“What’s your name?”

“...”

“You don’t have to tell me if you’d rather not. I just wanted to know your name, at least.”

No one had asked her to, but Dieta had laid bare all her thoughts and weaknesses. Faced with the question of a woman who had taken off her mask and honestly revealed everything about herself, Najin hesitated for a moment. Not for long.

He found himself thinking it would be unfair if he alone hid behind a mask now.

“Um, you really don’t have to answer...”

“Najin,” he said.

“Najin. That’s my name.”

Najin. Dieta rolled the name around in her mouth, then smiled radiantly. She reached out toward him. Holding his hand, she spoke.

“Thank you, Najin.”

And then:

“I’ll be counting on you. From now on, too.”

3.

On the fifth day, the end of the chase was in sight.

House Trevache’s territory could be seen in the distance.

Once they passed through that gate, the pursuit would end. Even knights of a ducal house could not freely scour a marquisal house’s lands.

“Are your ankles feeling any better?”

“Yes, one is a little better.”

Dieta walked with a limp.

Thanks to all the different potions they had obtained from villages and applied, she could now put weight on one foot. She could only shuffle along, dragging her feet, and every step hurt, but Dieta decided to focus on the fact that she could stand at all.

“Then let’s go.”

With Dieta on his back, Najin began to move.

But he did not get far. After taking a few steps forward, Najin slowly came to a stop.

Someone was blocking the road.

Standing across the only route into the marquisal house’s territory was a lone knight, clad in armor bearing the crest of the ducal House Arbenia. He stood there as though he had known they would come this way.

“I’ve come to escort you home, Lady Dieta,” he said.

Still on Najin’s back, Dieta’s eyes wavered as she looked at him. She knew who he was.

“Sir Griffin.”

The commander of the ducal House Arbenia’s knights. A Sword Seeker, and Arbenia’s sharpest blade. Dieta drew in a breath and touched Najin’s shoulder.

Najin crouched and set her down.

Standing on the ground with a hand on his arm, she looked straight at Griffin, who barred their path. This was one of the worst possibilities she had anticipated. She had every reason to panic, but the uncertainty in her eyes had already settled.

“It seems they’ve sent even you.”

“The duke holds you in great regard, my lady. Let us return together.”

“And if I refuse?”

“You know the answer.”

Griffin rested a hand on his sword hilt. Dieta sighed deeply and looked at Najin. They had already discussed this situation.

[“Griffin, the commander.”]

[“He’s a Sword Seeker. Among the knights deployed in the pursuit, he should be the only fighter who can definitely overwhelm you. There are three other Sword Seekers, but they probably haven’t been sent on this pursuit.”]

Deep in the forest after sunset, she had told him:

[“If, by some chance, we encounter Griffin...”]

[“Leave me behind and go to our destination. It will be easier to persuade them with me there, but it can be done without me.”]

[“I’ll buy you time.”]

Even Najin could not possibly defeat a Sword Seeker. From Dieta’s perspective, it was a rational judgment.

She did not want him to die.

“... Go.”

Whispering that, Dieta released Najin’s arm and took a step forward. She would use her silver tongue against Griffin to buy at least a little time.

“I’ll do as you ask. But I have a condition.”

“Please understand that you are in no position to demand conditions.”

“Then let’s call it advice instead.”

Dieta pointed to Najin standing behind her.

“This man is a bodyguard I hired in Cambria. He merely acted according to his contract, and any problems arising in the process are Cambria’s responsibility.”

“...”

“So let him go.”

“That is impossible...”

“The commander of a ducal house’s knights murders a Red-rank adventurer from Cambria. And near the territory of the marquisal House Trevache, which runs the Cambria Foundation, no less.”

Dieta curled the corners of her lips upward.

At some point, she had put her mask back on. As the Snake That Swallows Gold, she narrowed her eyes.

“Can you bear the consequences, Sir Griffin?”

“He is a criminal. He trespassed on the ducal house’s property...”

“You never reported that fact. Besides, the ducal house hardly has a clear conscience in this matter, does it?”

As she spoke, Dieta gestured for Najin to run, right now.

But he did not move. Just as she tried to buy a little more time while hiding her growing anxiety, Najin firmly gripped her shoulder.

Dieta gave a brief start and turned. Najin stood there, looking quietly at her. As their eyes met, a memory suddenly came to her.

[“I’ll buy you time.”]

[“You run.”]

What had Najin said when she told him that? He had said nothing. He had merely looked at her with the same eyes as now.

TAP.

Najin pushed Dieta behind him and stepped forward. The meaning of that movement was simple. Standing in front of her, he pointed toward the road leading into the marquisal house’s territory.

“Go on ahead,” Najin said.

“I’ll buy you time.”

Dieta’s eyes wavered.

But she soon realized that Najin would never change his mind. In that case, there was only one thing she could do.

“Don’t die.”

Gritting her teeth, Dieta began to move.

She walked, dragging one leg. Though she was doing her utmost, her pace was slow. It would take quite some time to reach the marquisal house’s gate.

“... Hah.”

Watching her, Griffin sighed. What was this farce? Just as he was about to step toward Dieta, who was dragging her leg as she moved away—

CLANG!

A chilling sensation ran up his spine.

Griffin whipped his head around.

Najin stood there with his sword drawn. Pure white sword aura blossomed over the blade in an instant. He pointed the aura-clad sword at Griffin.

If Griffin took even a single step, Najin would lunge at him and cut off his head. That was what his razor-sharp presence seemed to declare. Griffin narrowed his eyes. Judging by the shape of his sword aura, the man was a Sword Expert.

A fighter at a lower level than himself.

Someone he could easily defeat if he set his mind to it, yet he could not ignore that presence. He would not retreat. He would cling to Griffin’s ankles if that was what it took to buy time. Such fierce resolve emanated from the man.

“...”

Griffin drew his sword without a word. He looked at Najin, not the fleeing Dieta. It was a tribute to the resolve the man had shown.

“I will not ask your name.”

Over his drawn sword blossomed sword aura that possessed a defined form. It was the exclusive province of Sword Seekers, existing one step beyond sword aura.

“The duke has ordered me to secure Lady Dieta and kill whoever aided her escape,” he declared.

“I am Arbenia’s sword, a knight who obeys the duke’s commands. When carrying out my mission, the target’s identity is of no importance. Thus, I do not care who you are.”

Whether he was a titled noble, a celebrity from the City of Adventurers, or some exalted figure who must not be killed.

“The duke has commanded me to kill you, and I shall simply obey.”

Such matters were not his concern.

The duke had simply given an order, and he would simply follow it.

That was what Griffin called loyalty.

“The reason I tell you this nevertheless...”

Griffin pointed his sword at Najin.

“...is that I respect your choice.”

They differed only in whom they chose to serve.

Had he been Dieta’s knight, he too would have acted that way. He did not know the man’s identity, or even whether he was a knight, but what the man before him had shown was the nobility a knight ought to possess. Griffin respected that nobility.

Najin quietly raised his sword.

He had no intention of repudiating the knight before him. Offering one’s lord unconditional loyalty—that, too, was one way to be a knight. Following a lord’s commands while setting aside right and wrong, and one’s own values entirely. Najin had no intention of repudiating a knight who considered that loyalty.

Those were the man’s convictions.

And yet he raised his sword simply because he, too, had a line from which he could not retreat. Dieta had asked him to get her out of that villa, and Najin had a duty to fulfill her request.

Because he had promised.

There was no room for compromise in that promise.

Simple though it was, that was the entirety of Najin’s reason for challenging a Sword Seeker.