Whatever the circumstances, an unmarried man and woman could not spend the night in the same room. To Tyrkanzyaka, that was common sense beyond all question.

Tyrkanzyaka took him into his room and laid him on the bed. She could not bring herself to undress him, so he would have to lie down in his clothes, uncomfortable though it might be.

Perhaps three days of exhaustion had caught up with him. He fell asleep the instant his head touched the pillow.

After silently pulling the covers over him, Tyrkanzyaka stepped outside and settled in front of his room. Sitting atop her coffin with her parasol resting against her shoulder, she passed the night listening to the sound of his breathing from within.

Then, just before the daytime lights came on, the King of Dogs appeared. Azi approached with light steps from the far end of the corridor. Tyrkanzyaka briefly tightened her grip on her parasol, but...

“Woof?”

Even upon seeing Tyrkanzyaka, Azi merely tilted her head.

Reminded anew of what she had regained, Tyrkanzyaka felt a small stirring of emotion.

The King of Dogs did not bark at her. That was all, yet even something so small brought her joy. Her restored emotions made themselves felt in the most trivial things.

“You truly do not bark at me...”

Azi spoke to Tyrkanzyaka, who was blocking the door.

“Woof! It's morning! Have to wake him up!”

“Wait. I shall wake—”

“Woof! Woof!”

As Tyrkanzyaka opened the door, Azi shot through the gap. Then she bounded all over the room, barking furiously.

Startled, Tyrkanzyaka followed her inside.

Azi was noisy enough. Enough to wake even someone who had lost his memories.

He slowly sat up like a mummy. Despite having had some sleep, he was still staring blankly into space.

“Are you awake?”

Tyrkanzyaka spoke to him as she had yesterday. She did not expect an answer. She merely wanted to give him some semblance of an ordinary life.

Then...

“Good... morning...”

At the voice coming from the bed, Tyrkanzyaka was so startled that her heart nearly dropped.

“Shei! Shei!”

Tyrkanzyaka immediately sat him on her coffin and flew straight to Shei. When Shei opened the door, rubbing her eyes, Tyrkanzyaka presented the blank-faced man and exclaimed,

“I believe he has regained his memories!”

“Huh?”

“This morning, he greeted me as soon as he awoke! Surely his memories must be returning!”

Excitement still filled Tyrkanzyaka's voice. Shei's response, by contrast, was lukewarm.

“Really? He still looks like he's got a long way to go to me. Look at that blank face. He's nothing like his usual self.”

“But is he not better than yesterday? Yesterday, he merely repeated my words now and then, yet today he spoke of his own accord. He is clearly remembering how to speak!”

Seeing Tyrkanzyaka so excited, Shei hesitated. The truth would disappoint her.

But Shei lacked the ability to tell comforting lies. Nor was she the sort of person to do so.

“Losing your memory like that doesn't mean losing memories as information. Information like knowledge and language is still in his head. What's gone is the self that connects those things to his own identity and draws them out.”

He did not seem to realize they were talking about him. Even as he listened, he merely sat there on the coffin, looking blank.

Shei murmured as she watched him.

“See? He's not really reacting. He probably doesn't even know who he is right now.”

“But something is different. Look.”

Tyrkanzyaka hurried over to him with small steps. He had been sitting there blankly, but finally reacted when she drew near. She tapped his shoulder, then pointed at Shei and whispered,

“Now, over there. Try greeting Shei.”

He simply sat there like a vacant-eyed baby, while Tyrkanzyaka tended to him with the utmost care.

Watching them, Shei muttered inwardly.

'Oh, this is going to give me cognitive dissonance.'

Outwardly, they were a grown man and a young girl. Yet the girl was looking after him like a mother.

What was more, that grown man was the Military State's Instructor, who only days earlier had been smiling shamelessly and positively radiating suspicion. The man who had repeatedly put Shei on edge now sat with the most innocent face in the world, letting Tyrkanzyaka wait on him. It made her head spin.

'I understand how Tyrkanzyaka feels. Apparently something went wrong while he was fixing her heart. She must feel terribly responsible.'

But Shei still could not relax. Reading everything without leaving his seat and sending people on emotional roller coasters with a mere note—he was exactly the sort of shadowy mastermind she most detested.

It would have been one thing if that were all he seemed to be. But after he had fixed the Progenitor's heart just like that, Shei could not even fathom his true intentions.

He seemed neither a simple villain lurking in the shadows nor wholly pure and innocent. He was something closer to chaos.

'This really, really isn't an act, is it? He doesn't have any particular reason to do it, but...'

Even without a reason, he was the sort of person who would calmly do something insane. She wanted to let go of her suspicions, yet they lingered in a corner of her mind like a stain.

Shei was glaring sharply at him when...

“Greet... ing.”

Having understood Tyrkanzyaka's words, he gave Shei a timid bow of his head.

“H-hello...”

That even this behavior seemed suspicious was surely his own fault. Shei waved a hand dismissively.

“This doesn't mean anything. I'm telling you, people can say hello even after losing their memories...”

“... Sis.”

“?!?!”

Goose bumps sprang up along Shei's arms.

A shudder ran through her whole body.

Along with that visceral revulsion came a dizzying sensation. Shei cried out hastily,

“Wh-wh-wh-what are you saying?! You're a boy! You should call me Big Sis!”

Tyrkanzyaka pointed out,

“Shei, should it not be Big Brother?”

“Oh, right, yes, Big Brother—no, I'm younger—more importantly! Wait! Everybody freeze!”

When abruptly flustered, Shei had only one response. She grabbed Sky Cherry Blossom, which she had left floating by her bedside, and summoned a wind.

WHOOOOSH

Compressed air spread in every direction. Intricate currents formed around Shei, and as the wind swept through the narrow doorway, it made a sound like a beast's howl.

“What has gotten into you all of a sudden?”

Lowering her parasol to block the wind, Tyrkanzyaka frowned and glanced behind her. Fortunately, her shield had kept him from being blown over backward.

Shei regained her composure by fiddling with her beloved sword, Sky Cherry Blossom.

“Whew. I just needed to cool my head.”

“Cool it twice and you may uproot the entire prison. Be careful. In any case, do you understand now? Why I said he was different?”

“Yeah. I do understand...”

“Sis” was how a younger girl addressed an older girl. To use it, one needed the ability to assess one's own relationship to the other person objectively.

In other words, he possessed not only some awareness of himself, but also some ability to recognize others...

“But why 'Sis,' of all things?! He's got it completely backward!”

'He's a man! Why does he think he's a woman?!'

Her words had been aimed entirely at him, but Tyrkanzyaka took them the opposite way. Resting a hand against her chin, she looked Shei up and down.

“Hmm. You are rather pretty-featured. Enough that it would be no surprise if someone mistook you for a woman... A woman...”

Her words suddenly began to trail, and her brow swiftly furrowed. Looking gravely back and forth between Shei and the Instructor several times, Tyrkanzyaka let out a troubled murmur.

Then she approached him and began to explain in a soft, measured voice.

“Do not be confused. Though Shei is small, with slender limbs and a pretty face, he is most certainly male. A man in every sense of the word.”

“A... man?”

“Yes. He is a man, so be sure to remember it. He is not your Sis, and certainly not your Big Sis. Getting that wrong is the height of rudeness.”

Her words sounded less like a correction of a misunderstanding than an unmistakable warning. Watching Tyrkanzyaka glance sidelong at her, Shei felt an emotion she could not describe.

'And the way she acted yesterday, too... Oh, come on. No way. Did he really melt her frozen heart or something? Did what I suspected actually come true?'

Only much later did Shei notice something strange.

As Tyrkanzyaka had said, Shei was currently disguised as a man. An artifact maintained that disguise, so it worked without much attention on her part.

Yet he had called Shei “Sis.”

Sis. In other words, a form of address that required recognizing the other person as female.

'Wait. He saw through the Mask of Agartha? How?'

A fresh suspicion struck her. Could he have seen through her male disguise from the very beginning?

But Shei quickly dismissed that suspicion.

'That's impossible. The Mask of Agartha definitely works. Tyrkanzyaka and the others still believe I'm a man. And if he'd seen through my disguise, it would be strange to reveal it now.'

Then how?

Shei soon found a reasonable hypothesis.

'That's right. My artifact, the Mask of Agartha, has the power to determine first impressions. A first impression is important, and it affects later encounters, too... But first impressions are all this artifact can influence. It doesn't work on someone I've already met.'

That meant only one thing. This was not his first time seeing Shei, yet his first impression of her no longer remained.

In short, he had lost his memories.

'It looks like he really has lost his memories. I can put my suspicions to rest... No, maybe I could even use this to naturally clear up the misunderstanding that I'm a man...'

She had disguised herself as a man to enter the bottomless pit, and had maintained it in case the need arose... But Shei was surprisingly unconcerned about her disguise. She even often forgot about it herself.

Rather than insist on maintaining it, perhaps it would be better to clear up the misunderstanding now and form more comfortable relationships. Not that she wanted to go so far as stripping off her clothes to force everyone to acknowledge her sex.

If she could use this to naturally plant the idea that Shei might be a woman...

“A... man.”

“Yes. A man. Have you remembered?”

As Tyrkanzyaka finished speaking, he nodded emphatically and murmured,

“I thought... it was ambig-homo-us.”

He thought. Ambiguous.

Though he had not put it into words, she could hear what belonged between them: he had thought it was hard “to call her a woman, either.” Quite apart from the Mask of Agartha...

A vein bulged at Shei's temple. Wearing a terrifying expression, she beckoned to him.

“Hey. You. Get over here a second. You do have your memories!”

His instinct for danger returned before his sense of self. Frightened, he hid behind Tyrkanzyaka. She soothed him with a kindly smile, then began to scold Shei.

“Shei. Do not frighten him so. Can you not see he is afraid?”

“Come on, isn't that suspicious? Listen to the way he talks! He's starting to get his little digs in!”

“But it is true that you are ambiguous. Your features are delicate for a man. Even I have been confused at times.”

“And confused is all you've been?!”

'Wait a second. Didn't he just say something other than... ambiguous?!'

As Shei glared, Tyrkanzyaka pressed closer to him protectively. The parasol resting on her shoulder hid his face.

“Perhaps before, but now he has lost his memories trying to help me. He is no different from an innocent child. How can you even think of blaming him?”

“Getting my sex wrong is suspicious enough, but it doesn't make sense for him to think he's a woman in the first place! There's no reason for that at all! Hey! Tell me the truth. You haven't lost your memories, have you?! You're laughing to yourself in there, aren't you?!”

“Now you resort to slander? For a man to be so small-minded... This is too much. Is it not?”

With Tyrkanzyaka defending the Instructor at every turn, Shei could do nothing but fume. Her glare was fierce enough, however, that he, with only his instincts left, cowered behind Tyrkanzyaka's back.

And Tyrkanzyaka secretly enjoyed that. It was part of the reason she did not go out of her way to give Shei a harsher scolding.

Feeling his hand clutch her clothing tightly, Tyrkanzyaka soothed him again.

“Do not worry. Did I not promise to take care of you?”

“Um, thank... you. Uh...”

As he trailed off, Tyrkanzyaka gently added,

“Did I not tell you earlier? Call me Tyr.”

“Yes, Tyr.”

“There, good boy.”

Shei could only gape in disbelief.

'I wasn't planning to attack him, either! Stop using me as the villain!'

This was getting more ridiculous by the moment.

Even when she did not want to be suspicious, her doubts kept springing up. If he was pretending to have lost his sense of self, that was outrageous enough. But if he really had lost it, that was impressive in its own way. How could anyone act suspicious even without their memories?

After grinding her teeth for a while, Shei suddenly had a good idea.

“Wait. Why didn't I think of that?”

If he really had lost his memories, he would answer her questions honestly.

If he was pretending, he would evade questions that were difficult to answer.

'In the first case, I can uncover his secrets. In the second, I can see through his act. This is my chance!'

Either way, she had nothing to lose. Shei spoke excitedly.

“Tyrkanzyaka. Now's the time. This is our chance to get information out of him!”

Of course, Tyr would not agree right away. But Shei was confident she could persuade her.

As expected, Tyr's immediate reaction was negative.

“Information? You mean to interrogate someone who has lost his memories? What else are you trying to pry out of him? Absolutely—”

“His name, his rank, or how he came here, or what his abilities are! If not now, we'll never get a chance to find out!”

But what if she piqued her curiosity? Wearing a triumphant smile, Shei casually proposed,

“What do you say?”

Tyr, who had been about to object vehemently, stopped in midsentence.

“His name. His name, you say.”

Murmuring quietly, Tyr glanced at him with equal parts curiosity and guilt on her face. Then she lightly closed her eyes and stepped back, signaling her reluctant agreement to Shei.

“... If I am to continue looking after him, I should know at least the basics. Such as his name. Ahem.”

The wall that had sheltered him was gone. He stared at Tyr, but she merely averted her eyes.