After barely managing to calm the King of Dogs, Tyrkanzyaka helped the fallen man up and headed for the dining hall.

Even as he rolled across the ground, he had not so much as grimaced, let alone screamed. He merely followed Tyrkanzyaka slowly, his eyes unfocused.

"Are you all right?"

He nodded—a small dip of his head. But that was all. He gave no other answer or reaction.

With a worried expression, Tyrkanzyaka murmured,

"You seem able to hear me and understand what I say... Yet it is as though you have become an idiot."

Still, there was no response. Tyrkanzyaka could only grieve for him.

To think he had ended up like this, when he had always been so cheerful in word and deed, with even the most useless nonsense flowing effortlessly from his tongue. Had she not truly taken everything from him?

"Let us go to the dining hall first. If there is anything there, we shall soon find it."

Even if they found nothing, even if he spent the rest of his life an idiot, that would be all right. Tyrkanzyaka intended to take responsibility for him.

He was her benefactor, and the patience that had seen her through an eternity would not vanish simply because her heart was beating again.

"The dining hall... was near the classroom on the fourth floor, if I recall."

Guiding her coffin with blood manipulation, Tyrkanzyaka frowned briefly. Ordinarily, the moment she willed it, the coffin would move as smoothly as her own body. Since her heart had begun beating, however, she had felt a subtle resistance whenever she manipulated anything outside her body.

It had not become difficult to control. She simply felt a slight weight to it now.

Perhaps it was the difference between moving her hand and moving a bag held in that hand.

"Is it because I have regained my heart? My blood manipulation no longer does quite as I wish."

The incensewood coffin had been with her for nearly a thousand years.

It had been her bed, her home, and practically her own hands and feet. Now that it behaved as stiffly as a child who had gained independence, she felt a little hurt.

Yet when her fluttering heart reminded her of the warmth of the man sitting beside her, that disappointment faded for a time.

"Yes. If one gains something, one must lose something as well."

In trying to grasp everything in the world, one might crowd out and drop the small, precious things one must never forget. Tyrkanzyaka decided to consider it the price of regaining her emotions.

The coffin rose smoothly, carrying the two of them side by side. They reached the fourth floor in an instant and soon arrived at the dining hall.

A plain dining table and four chairs stood in one corner, as though supplied merely out of obligation. One large stockpot and about five smaller pots lined a shelf in order of size. The cramped but neatly arranged space had a lived-in feel, as though someone took care to maintain it.

Looking around the dining hall, Tyrkanzyaka murmured,

"This is my first time here... Though I suppose I never had any need to come."

Vampires consumed nothing but blood. That was why Tyrkanzyaka had never visited the dining hall before. Another person's blood loss was a vampire's sustenance.

That remained true even now, but Tyrkanzyaka had another mouth to feed.

She helped him into a chair, then looked around.

"They say even flowers are best admired after a meal. You must be very hungry after three days without food. Let us eat something before we begin."

Having set out to cook, Tyrkanzyaka was reminded that she knew nothing about it.

Her body had never needed food. There was no way she could remember cooking more than twelve hundred years ago. All that remained was the basic knowledge that boiling ingredients in water would produce something roughly resembling stew.

"... I had best find some ingredients first."

After looking about, Tyrkanzyaka spotted a cupboard high up on the wall. She managed to open it on tiptoe, but at her height she could barely see the lowest shelf.

It held only cups, plates, and similar items. Tyrkanzyaka levitated to inspect the higher shelves.

The middle shelf neatly stored leftover oil and partly used ingredients. Making a mental note of them, she looked higher still.

What Tyrkanzyaka found on the top shelf was...

a small golem, tied up and wriggling.

"Hm?"

The golem's posture was peculiar. No, peculiar alone did not quite describe it. There was something maliciously mischievous about the sight.

As though dreaming of becoming an organic being, the golem sat with its bottom planted and its legs spread a full 180 degrees. It looked as though it were doing yoga.

A closer look, however, revealed that this was not voluntary. Its ankles were tightly bound with wire, preventing it from closing its legs even if it wanted to.

The speaker removed from its mouth lay just beyond the reach of its hands. With its legs bound, the golem stretched its arms out desperately to retrieve it, but could never quite reach.

Whoever had arranged this had calculated the distance superbly.

Too mild to call torture, yet too cruel to call a prank, it was an exercise perfectly suited to driving someone mad.

Watching the golem struggle, Tyrkanzyaka murmured,

"Are you not the toy golem I saw before?"

Realizing that Tyrkanzyaka had noticed it, the golem waved both arms desperately. Without its speaker it could not make a sound, but anyone could see it was pleading for rescue.

"Are you asking me to untie you?"

The golem nodded repeatedly. Lacking a speaker, it made up for it with fervent gestures of agreement.

Tyrkanzyaka undid the wire binding the golem. Very slowly and carefully, it brought its spread legs together, then clutched its thighs with both arms and rolled about for a while. It seemed to be writhing in pain.

Before long, the golem got up and reattached the speaker to its mouth. A voice emerged intermittently from the reconnected speaker, as though it were broken.

『That goddamn... XX finally overstepped...! This is treason...!』

Amid crackling static came something halfway between speech and swearing. Finally calming itself, the golem cleared its throat softly and faced Tyrkanzyaka.

『... Thank you for your assistance, Progenitor Tyrkanzyaka. I apologize for the presumption under these circumstances, but I request your cooperation.』

"As it happens, I had something to ask you as well. I shall hear your request first. Let us each exchange one."

Tyrkanzyaka made the proposal at her leisure.

『I will answer only if it concerns information I am permitted to disclose.』

"Does that not go without saying? I, too, shall remain silent on questions I find difficult to answer. How could one divulge a secret? And even if one did, how would you distinguish truth from falsehood?"

『A foolish concern on my part. I accept. Then I will ask my question first.』

The golem clenched its fists and raised its head. Surely no emotion could be discerned in that rigid body, yet Tyrkanzyaka somehow felt it was suppressing boundless rage.

At last, it spat out its question.

『Where is that man?』

"That man?"

There was only one person the golem could mean. Tyrkanzyaka understood at once, and that very understanding made her falter awkwardly.

"If you mean the Instructor you sent, hmm. Well, I... There has been a slight problem."

『Is this something you cannot answer?』

"Not exactly. He is here, at any rate. However..."

She could simply say that he had lost his memories while trying to restore Tyrkanzyaka's lost heart, omitting all the circumstances.

But would that not be terribly irresponsible?

He had called himself an Instructor. Given his seemingly endless abilities, he must have been an exceptional talent destined to shoulder the future of the nation called the Military State. By ruining such a person, Tyrkanzyaka had inflicted a tremendous loss upon the Military State as well.

Thinking of it that way, she had truly caused trouble for so many people. Guilt washed over her anew.

"There is much to discuss. Might I speak briefly with a representative of your Military State?"

She would have to negotiate with the Military State, if only to compensate them for harming him and have him placed in her care. That was what Tyrkanzyaka had in mind when she spoke, but...

『Has that reactionary done something?』

The answer was so unexpected that Tyrkanzyaka blinked.

"A... reactionary?"

『Affirmative! The reactionary who restrained this unit!』

The golem answered in a louder voice than usual.

Was it because she could feel emotions again? Tyrkanzyaka realized she could discern the emotions in a voice more clearly than before.

Intrigued by this unfamiliar sensation, the Progenitor who had regained her emotions focused on the golem's words.

『I have a duty to observe the interior of Tantalus! Yet that man, a mere laborer, obstructed my mission! This constitutes obstruction of official duties at a Level 5 security facility and, depending on its severity, qualifies as at least a Level 4 crime! Furthermore, he has already committed a crime and been sentenced to hard labor, so this time he will not receive even the slightest reprieve!!』

He had restrained the golem, then run off. He had committed a crime by obstructing official duties.

He had already committed a crime once before? Did that mean he had fallen out of favor with the Military State?

Without realizing it, Tyrkanzyaka came to his defense.

"Do not be so angry. A sovereign ought to respect a general's judgment. Surely he had some deeper purpose."

『I can assure you he had no such thing. To begin with, this is not a battlefield, nor is he even a general!』

"Did your nation not send him here as lord of this domain? A knight responsible for an entire domain may rightly be called a general..."

『Negative! He is not even a steward, let alone a knight! Strictly speaking, he is lower than a slave!』

Surely treating someone loyal to their country as a slave was going too far.

And how dare it call him, of all people, a slave?

Half in admonishment and half out of an anger she could not explain, Tyrkanzyaka was about to rebuke it.

『Because he is! Though he concealed it from you and the others! In truth, he is a criminal sentenced to hard labor in Tantalus for his crimes!』

Had the golem not revealed that unexpected fact, she would certainly have spoken.