Edwin slowly turned around. The brother and sister were sitting in the corner of the store. A boy with a face obsessed with the singing and a woman wearing a hood sitting across from him. Edwin's gaze went straight to the woman.

[Lance. You ride a black horse like always

I will run forward through that wide field.

This small town can't hold your big dreams.

So you won't come back here someday.]

He couldn't hear it clearly because of the raucous background noise, but it wasn't so much that he couldn't tell what the song was about.

Lance Elliot. A great conqueror who unified the southern continent.

It was a song that Edwin knew well.

'It's not that surprising. It's hard to say things like this to others, but I'm very good at singing.'

The scene of the day when the white sunlight felt exceptionally warm unfolded before Edwin's eyes. When he said that he liked the song, Herietta raised her chin and was proud of herself.

'Many people have said that my singing voice is as beautiful as a nightingale or something.'

How lovely she was when she smiled brightly.

Edwin turned away from the woman. He could no longer face the Herietta of his memories. His chest throbbed as if it had been torn out, and his breathing quickened.

'It's not her.'

He gritted his teeth and closed his eyes.

'She, Herietta McKenzie, no longer exists in this world.'

Then he tried to even out his breathing. Memories like distorted scars that he wanted to forget but never could. It became a strong noose and choked Edwin.

He clenched his fists with such force that the veins on the backs of his hands stood out blue. He could feel his nails piercing his palms and digging into his skin, but it was nothing compared to the anguish and frustration in his heart. He bowed his head helplessly.

Lord?

As Edwin stood hard as a rock, Theodore, who was standing behind him, called to him quietly.

Lord, something wrong ?

Theodore asked cautiously. It was a worried look, wondering if something was wrong.

'Something wrong.'

Edwin silently repeated Theodore's question. It was a very simple question that could be answered with a 'yes' or 'no'. But he couldn't answer right away. If he said there was no problem, it would be a blatant lie.

So what about that woman singing the song about Lance Elliot? Is the problem with that woman who chooses that song out of many songs and stirs up his painful memories?

No way. Edwin smiled bitterly and laughed at himself.

If there was a problem, it was not that woman but with Edwin himself. He wants the woman to be what she will never be. The stupid and foolish Edwin, who somehow wants to find her in the shadow of her existence somehow.

As deep as the sense of loss, the period of wandering was also long. Something must be wrong. Thousands of times he denied reality and hoped for a miracle to happen. Tens of thousands of times he wished that all of this was just a terrible nightmare and that one day he would open his eyes.

However, in the end, the miracle did not happen. Nor did he wake up from the nightmare. It was a vain dream, a futile hope.

Wishing did not bring the dead back to life.

Nothing.

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Edwin raised his head and answered curtly. His eyes, which had been tinged with chaotic light, became colder than ever before.

Edwin opened the store door and went out. Ring-ling~ The bell rang, and a cool breeze caressed his face. The warmth that had settled around him for a moment also disappeared in the blink of an eye.

In early spring, a chilly breeze hung over the rough stone road. Edwin and Theodore, and Lionelli, who had followed after paying the bill, stood on the side of the road that was as quiet as it was bleak.

Edwin, who was slowly examining the street scene in silence, raised his head and looked up at the sky.

A clear blue sky. The sun seemed to be setting, and the western edge of the sky was turning a pale pink. And Edwin saw in it the embers of the flame that would devour this place in the near future.

For a moment, the image of the brother and sister he had just seen came to mind. The image of young siblings sitting neatly and spending a peaceful afternoon.

But Edwin soon erased the image from his mind. It was a strange feeling, like grains of coarse sand rolling under the sleeves of his clothes, but he tried to ignore it.

He had something to do. Everything else had no meaning and was only temporary.

Edwin inhaled and exhaled slowly.

He has already come too far to turn back now. And he didn't know the way back anymore. He was just blindly moving forward.

Even if what spreads out in front of him is a thousand-mile cliff.

Three days later, in the night of pitch-black darkness.

Large-scale Kustan army crossed the borders of Velicia and entered Balesnorth.

It was an ordinary day, no different from any other day. It was late at night when thick darkness fell over the barren land. They came to Balesnorth without any warning.

In the dark blue western sky, colorful flowers of flame bloomed.

Whoooowww.

Grotesque shouts resounded in all directions, like the sound of a dreary wind. As if to indicate that something huge was approaching, the small stones that were lying on the flat earth began to shake slightly.

'What?'

Seeing that, a sentry soldier who had been half asleep near the border of the village suddenly opened his eyes.

'What is that?'

He rubbed his eyes when he saw something that looked like a black shadow moving in the distance. He heard that there was a group of hunters who went hunting to the east not long ago. Did they just return to the village?

'But it's too big to be them.'

The soldier narrowed his eyes even more. Even though it seemed to be still quite far away, the size was insignificant. Rather than a group of many people, it looked more like a huge forest moving as a whole.

'What is it? What the hell is that?'

The soldier's face, which had been staring into the distance with his eyes wide open, soon hardened like a stone.

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