On that day of the holidays, Ren was visiting a house he knew.

Ren had certain doubts about the identity of the slave girl.

I visited the mansion where some people lived in order to get information about the slave girl that Snow and Ez-Ann couldn't get from me.

There are a couple of people that Ren has come to this city to get to know, and they certainly know about Slave Girls. Whether or not I could actually hear it out, I thought it was worth asking.

When I rang the knocker on the front door, the door opened after a while.

"Yes, what... Len?

It was Mulina who came out to answer.

It's a visit without prior contact. Even though some opponents will only find it annoying, Mullina unexpectedly blinks her eyes and then flashes her face.

"What's going on? All of a sudden you come see me at home."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I need Mr. Wheaton today."

"- What...?

Mullina's expression solidified with a smile.

Neither the mouth nor the position of the eye butt that creates the shape of a laugh move tightly. With a stopped smile in an unnatural way, she obliques the dust and neck.

"Why? What about Len? Not me? To your brother? To see you? Are you here?

"Shh, I just need to ask you a few questions......!

Pushed by the pressure of an unshakeable smile, yet stomped to avoid being pushed off. Nevertheless, it is a lot more distracting at a time when I am unconsciously becoming a junior year salute.

"Huh? I don't mind."

Murina narrowed her eyes to dissatisfaction, but did not inquire further. Open the door and welcome Ren into the house.

"I mean, if you're coming to see your brother, you just need to tell me in advance"

"No, I wanted to see Mr. Wheaton yesterday at the training center when I met the knights on patrol. There were so many things I missed."

"Ahhh.... I'll tell you as many times as I can, because I'm not bad about Linley."

"He said he knew that. I want Linley to follow me from now on."

"Hmmm... I don't like it when that kid gets laid, either"

"Yep...?

Mulina sat at the reception room table while baffling Ren with a subtle jealous dialogue and once pulled into the kitchen. At the hands of Murina, who has come out again, a basin is carried with a cup of hot air for two.

"Yes, tea"

"Thanks."

He didn't even bother to prepare tea, even though he wasn't a big guest. Mullina sits down and pokes her cheekstick at the front of Ren, whom she thanked.

Compared to the first time we met, the blue eyes loosened much, and I look at Ren's face.

"... Mulina?

What can I do for you? Calling his name, he laughs loosely with his eyes down.

"Yummy?"

"Mmm."

"Oh well."

A casual, familiar interaction with Ren's routine. Murina nodded contentedly, making sure her words went into Len uncomfortably, and stood up without saying anything more.

"Well, I'll get your brother, just give me a minute"

Stand up and play the reception room in tongue-blown footsteps. Ren felt a sense of remorse in the space where he could no longer be with Mullina.

Take a sip of tea so as to mislead the sawdust. Whiton showed up, making sure he was replaced by Mullina.

"Hey, Len."

Whiton Barlow.

A young man who was once a brave man. He has a tender look, with a well-groomed face that makes him feel inherited from Murina.

As he enters his room, Ren stands up and bows with a pepper.

"Long time no see, Mr. Wheaton"

"Yeah, it's been a while. I've been in the capital for a while now, even more so."

Whiton sits down and talks to me with a smile.

"But Ren, it's good to see you. How's it going with Mullina?

"There's something about it, and it's working. Mullina always helps us."

"Right. I see. Are you doing well?... Phew."

Mullina makes the tea she prepared while Whitton smiles softly when she hits on the relationship.

The smile made my eyes sharper without heart. Somewhere, sharply reminiscent of the previous Mullina.

"So, Mr. Ren. You came all the way here to see me today."

Kacha, and the sound of placing the cup on the saucer rang. To the sound, Ren's back somehow freaked out.

"Maybe you're here to talk to Mullina? If that's the case, I'd like you to show me what you're prepared for."

"No, I'm not,"

"... well"

Whiton's shoulder slipped and he was dropped. The pressing atmosphere fogs and leaks haha a carefree laugh.

"Oh my God, is that so? Good for you. Yeah, yeah, it's still early, isn't it? I know, I know."

"Ha, ha"

What did Whiton try to talk about? Somehow I get it, but Ren pretends not to notice and escapes reality.

"So, what are you here to talk about?

I want to hear about the revolution.

You mean the revolution?

I guess it's a story that gets heard a lot. I didn't look confused by Whiton, who had lost his power.

"Speaking of which, I told the reporter the other day. A lot's happened, Len, but what do you want to hear?

"About the Emperor."

Ren looks firmly into Wheaton's eyes.

"What happened to the emperor who ruled the 'worst decade of the empire' after that revolution?"

……

The expression disappeared from Wheaton's face.

Ren trembles his shoulders with fright. It's completely separate from the tension we had earlier. His inorganic eyes were giving him a bottomless horror.

"... you who met that girl and knew us too. I know what you're trying to find in your interactions with her and us."

Whiton slowly opens his mouth.

The released voice also turns from a good serene tone of people to something so complex that the emotions cannot be read.

"I couldn't go back to this city for years after the revolution because I couldn't decide what to do with her."

Who is she referring to?

There was a mixture of different emotions in his voice that I didn't make clear. I'm sure Whiton himself has so many thoughts in him that he doesn't know what to describe.

"Even after the revolution, the Holy Sword remained. Having a holy sword meant that the empire was not gone, and the meaning of me being a brave man had not disappeared. Because of that, I kept being held captive by the church."

What Whiton talks about was a word that made Ren's thoughts clear.

What Ren thinks maybe isn't specifically spoken of. Still, it's a word that wouldn't come out if Ren hadn't been spotted noticing.

"And the holy sword I pulled out disappeared. I'm not a brave man anymore."

I'm much more aware of what I've been told.

Ren didn't call him a brave man at some point. At first, I called him "The Brave Man," but at some point I started calling him by name.

I just thought it was because of the deeper interaction, but what do you think? Can you say that there was no other influence?

"Wheaton,"

"Yeah."

"I think it's blurry that I'm a slave girl... who I am."

"I know. I mean, you must be."

There's no sign of Whitton wandering off. A calm and unchanging attitude, words jam.

That can't happen. Ren's knowledge, which can be called common sense, denies his predictions.

"But there are so many things that Tsuji doesn't fit."

The last emperor of the Empire, Fuyuraciato Herbaria IV.

One of the few women among the historical emperors. Even Ren knows about her age.

When she took the throne of the emperor, she was certainly in the middle of twenty.

When the revolution converged, it should have been over forty.

She has been in office for more than twenty years. Long before Ren was born, the last emperor sat on the throne of this country.

In exchange, the slave girl is a girl her age, no matter how she sees it. Obviously not old enough for her to be Fuyurasiat Herbaria IV.

If you're forty, you're a parent generation person to the Lens, who are of late teenage age age.

"So that's not true, is it?"

"History books don't always tell the truth."

Whiton's response did not follow.

"As the Bible resolved the contradiction of incompleteness with what was written by a man's words, neither can history books escape subjectivity any more than a man takes a brush. History is dramatic, but it's full of deception."

In later years, I'm sure, those who continue to remain in this country's textbooks will continue with a cold voice deprived of heat.

"That's why I can't tell you the answer to the question you have. I'm the man who just happened to pull out the Holy Sword. You decide what you want to do. [M] If I'm wrong - I hope someone doesn't decide to be an idol like me."

The self-derisive counsel soaked deep into Ren's heart. Even if I don't understand what I'm trying to say, it conveys true emotions.

"Just let me say one thing"

Whiton turns his strangely calm eyes to Ren.

"The church in this city is now home to Ease Ann. Look, Ren. No offense to her. There is no evil in her faith, either, so that there is no conscious malice in the voice of the masses. That's why you shouldn't be flushed by either of them."

"What do you mean? I just don't get the point..."

"You can leave it without knowing what it means. Better not know."

Severely one-sided, but somewhere real.

"So if you find a sword stabbed in the water in a dungeon... I don't want you to touch that"

Even for Mullina.

Whiton's voice as Whitton's brother, which I added so small, was terribly in Wren's mind.