＜Infinite Dendrogram＞

□ [Saint Knight] Ray Sterling.

"Is this an air trench?

In the open space near the village, there was a hemispherical structure that we didn't have before we flew off the ground. It dots not one, but three places.

Probably created by collaborators with local attribute magic skills and terrain manipulation abilities. It is built so that it is buried halfway to the ground because it uses the ground as a material.

In addition, the surface of this building is glowing in the shadows. They continue to use skills similar to junctions to prepare for attacks.

As for the [monochrome] attack, it would also be something that could withstand for a while if it were a powerless hotline pouring down from at least 10,000 meters above.... I don't know what will happen with a hotline at close range.

Once inside, the trenches are sheltered by villagers and tourists.

I searched for the seniors and Lewis in there.

Before he put the ground in range again in 20 minutes, before Nemesis grabbed the thread of the counterattack in the analysis, because he thought he should join seniors first to explain the situation.

That's how I searched through the trenches, and I found two people I knew.

"None, let go......!

"You shouldn't. If you can't do it with your body, you can't do it with your belly..."

That's Mr. Farica and senior.

Mr. Farica is trying to get out of the trenches with a desperate face, and the seniors hold that in place.

I wonder if something happened...... I realize there's no Louis around the two of us.

I have a bad feeling.

"Senior!"

"Mr. Ray, [Monochrome] is... no, I know"

Seniors soon realized that things had not yet been resolved because of how I was doing and the [monochrome] laughter I still hear.

"You..."

"Louis, Louis isn't here!

"Lewis still evacuated...!?"

"Yes. I've checked the other air trenches, but they weren't there. Lewis, who was in this trench, also asked your friend what was going on, and Lewis said you broke up just before [monochrome] came out, saying," I'm going to pick up your mother because the dance is about to start. "

"... ugh!

This means that Louis was alone when [Monochrome] was rampant.

A bitter image passes through the back of the brain and a chill runs through the spine.

"I'll go find it!

"Let me accompany you, too. Mr. Farica, please wait here."

"But Louis..."

"For you too, Louis, wait!

Me and my senior get out of the trenches while we stop Mr. Farica from trying to find him himself.

Horns on the rabbit, if we don't find Louis soon, our lives are in danger.

Until [Monochrome] restarts the attack...... not much time left.

My senior and I rode silver to the burning village of Torne, hoping that you would be safe.

◆ ◆ ◆

■

A group of people watched as Ray and Beasley aligned themselves and left the trenches.

They are all < master > and uniformly wear the same mark.

They look at each other and nod at each other.

Use your communication magic skills to also contact their peers who were evacuating to other air trenches and those waiting outside of the trenches.

The [monochrome] raid had only reduced the number of people, but still had enough people to do what was to be done, what led them thought.

Then they got out of the trenches like they were chasing Ray and Beasley.

When I left that way, one of them shrugged.

"You got your chance early," he said.

◇ ◇ ◇

□ The village of Torne

Alone in one of the stone windmill huts in the village of Torne, Louis held his knees.

"... gusu"

The irradiation of the heat line by [Monochrome] was taking place while Louis was on his way to the house.

Fortunately, he was away from the festival venue where people were gathered, so [monochrome] didn't even target him, and Louis' life was saved.

But still, in the appearance of a flaming village, Louis' heart was imprisoned with terror.

Louis desperately fled and fled into this windmill cabin that was built by the road. The windmill shed hid Louis from [monochrome] view, and he was away from the other houses, so he never got caught in the fire.

But even as he escaped, it was a trail for Lewis.

The difficulty escaped temporarily, but if you go outside, you will be burned by [monochrome], so this windmill hut was a trench and a prison at the same time.

"Ugh..."

So now, Louis was crying with his knees in his arms.

The overhead laughter was horrible.

Being alone is delicate.

Above all, show yourself to my mother, who would have stayed home.

"If I had a father-in-law..."

Louis thinks.

If I had a stepfather at a time like this, he would have helped us.

Even if Lewis thought so, the reality would not be a problem Sijima Ichiro could solve.

But now at this time, the young Louis' heart was asking for help just as it was then.

A young child stays in the mood for parents......

I was waiting for my own “father”.

◇

Four years ago...... Louis had admired Sijima since we met. He is a benefactor of life and a tough < master >. To the child's heart, Sijima was Louis' hero.

But I didn't see it at all as a father at the time. It's the same thing you don't think of a hero or a star player as a father.

So when Farica remarried Sijima, I honestly had the feeling of not being interpreted.

"I'm not really your dad"...... it was an honest rejection.

I like it, I admire it, but I'm never a father, he said.

"Because I really have a good old man," was a common idea for kids after remarriage.

Until then, even though he admired it honestly, Louis drew a line between him and Sizima and made a groove.

Even when Sijima started living with him, Lewis was more of an anthropomorphic than before and didn't consider Sijima a "family”.

But neither Sijima nor Farica said anything about it.

That's not what my parents say, because I thought Lewis himself should choose to fold into his heart... or amaze his days without.

So rather about that, he seemed more worried about Gringham the Horseman or Yuno the Embrio than about the couple.

In that way, when a month or so passes with a sneeze...... a turning point in the family is visited.

That was... when Farica and Louis went to visit the King's capital.

It was Louis' real father's tomb that came, and on the day of his death, his mother and son came to clean the tombstone and donate flowers.

Louis' real father was a mediocre [carpenter], but one day he slipped his leg off the roof and died just like that. It was a story of a bad beating and couldn't even make it to recovery magic to be instant death.

Louis and Farica were cleaning their graves and praying with flowers before their graves.

Finish your prayers. The two leave the cemetery and go home.

I just realized on my way home that Louis had forgotten his cleaning equipment in front of my father's grave.

"I'll be right back, Mother, wait," said Louis, hurrying back to Father's grave.

So when Louis returned to the grave, there was an unexpected figure there...... sizima.

After sending the two of them to the King's Capital, there's a figure of Sijima who should have split up by saying, "I have business".

He placed a smoky incense in front of Louis' real father's grave, his hands meditating together.

There was no way of noticing Louis hiding behind other graves because he was too focused.

Then how still it would have been.

Sijima finishes her long prayer and Sijima slowly opens her mouth.

"I will protect you both as long as I have my life, and I will make you happy"

It is a word directed to the deceased…… to those who were protecting their beloved people before themselves.

"So please... watch"

To the widow, it was an oath.

Louis was just hiding and watching how it went.

But that's when I thought naturally.

"Oh, this guy... he is", he said.

On the border of that day, the pan that was in Louis had disappeared little by little.

From then on, they spent their days as parents and children in peace.

The Wind Star Festival after being able to break it down as a family was a very pleasant memory for Louis.

◇

But now, at this time, the situation in which Louis was placed is as if it were not a memory.

"How did this happen..."

Today at Windstar Festival, Louis was alone and frightened with his knees.

Last year's Wind Star Festival, my stepfather was there.

There was also Gringham, a horseman, and Yuno of Maiden.

But with my father-in-law, Gringham and Yuno were also gone.

And now... without even my mother beside me, Louis is trembling at the laughter of despair he hears from overhead in a cold stone hut.

"I want to see my father-in-law and my mother..."

Remaining alone, Louis kept crying inside the windmill cabin.

◇ ◇ ◇

□

- You could be free.

- Then there will be nothing I can be commanded to do.

- But what if you...

- Like me... if you felt it was something that would shine through those days.

- If you think we were family.

- Please, I have a wish for you to come true.

◇

He slowly opened his eyes as he rebelled against the very important words.

He woke up in the midst of a landscape he knew well.

But the season was about two years past before he slept.

He checks his condition.

That's how I realize.Something had happened so far, I was feeling disconnected from someone he admired.

He felt sad about the lost connection.

…………

After checking his own condition, he realized that the sky was looking strange.

It's oddly dark and an uncomfortable laugh even though I don't think it's night yet.

He didn't mind the laughter he heard from above the sky because it seemed unpleasant.

But lost in the laughter, I heard a sound he could never ignore.

You can't possibly ignore it.

You can't miss asking.

The sound was... because it was the crying voice of a dear child he knew well.

Because his “family” was crying.

"GLUWOOOOOOOOO!!"

He roared, kicking the ground with four legs and rushing unconsciously to his voice.

To protect my dear “family”.

To be continued