In the back of the shop, where only silence remained after Raniel’s departure, Cardi stared blankly at the table. On it lay the letter left by Raniel.
An old letterhead, and an envelope sealed with the Hero’s insignia.
As he looked at the two letters, Cardi recalled the earlier conversation. Raniel’s voice lingered in his ears.
“I have a request for you.”
“I won’t say much. Just confirm it yourself.”
Her tone was different from usual, carrying a sense of warning and concern, making Cardi instinctively understand. The moment he opened that letter, he would have to make a choice, one way or another.
“I’ll come back in a few days, so think it over until then. Whatever you choose is fine. The choice is yours.”
With that, she left, leaving only the letter behind.
“…Hoo.”
Cardi exhaled deeply.
The envelope marked with the Hero’s insignia was handed to him by Raniel, and the other letter… even without any explanation from her, he could guess what it contained.
Cardi reached into the back of the shelf.
There was a box filled with the letters exchanged between them. A dusty old box. As he opened it with the creaking of rusty hinges, it revealed dozens of folded letters stacked inside.
“When’s the next class, Armiel?”
“I just properly treated someone for the first time today. As you said, I fixed the bones first, and well, this time the patient’s screams were halved!”
Starting from letters from the time he taught her.
“Quit smoking. I threw away everything you left in the lab, just so you know! Why write this in a letter? Because if I said it in front of you, you would get angry.”
“Armiel.”
“I guess you’re busy these days? Not even letting me in because you’re researching, how cruel! I may be the representative of the church, you know.”
Letters filled with her playful expressions as she became a symbol of the church.
“I hope I can see your face tomorrow.”
Even without opening them, Cardi remembered what each letter contained. It wasn’t just the elven trait of having a good memory.
It was simply because he had read them many times.
He had to cling to these memories in whatever way he could.
Cardi placed the letter he took out of the box next to the letter Raniel left behind. It was, after all, the same letterhead. Even the fact that he had put all sorts of spells on it, hiding it from others, was the same.
“…Really.”
Cardi let out a hollow laugh.
He couldn’t bring himself to touch the letter. With his hand just within reach, the letter felt like a disaster.
He feared opening it.
He was afraid of what she might have written. Whispers of curses directed at him, phrases filled with blame—those fears paralyzed him.
Fear felt substantial, as if he could see his own ugliness reflected back.
Did he still hope she wouldn’t blame him despite everything? With the inability to keep promises, unable to choose anything, did he dare wish for that? No, that wasn’t it.
What was more terrifying was confirming how much she had changed from the Gleria he remembered, recalling her face from that collapsing Arcadia.
For a long time, Cardi stared at the letter.
After a long moment, he reached out toward it. Regardless of what sentence was written inside, he had a duty to face it head-on.
Creak, creak…
The letter was sealed just as it had been hundreds of years ago. While tracing old memories, Cardi dismantled the spell that bound the letter.
Then, click.
As the seal lifted, the letter unfolded.
Cardi took a deep breath and shifted his gaze to the first line of the letter, ready to accept whatever was written there…
“…Ah.”
However, the moment he glimpsed the first line, he couldn’t even exhale. What was written there was entirely unexpected.
“To Armiel, my beloved.”
Thus began the first line of the letter.
2.
Raniel walked the familiar path and arrived at the mansion.
A mansion on a hill.
After gazing at the sparkling fields bathed in the setting sun for a moment, Raniel knocked on the mansion door. After a brief wait, it opened.
“What is it, Raniel?”
Rosel van Trias.
He looked a bit older than Raniel remembered, holding the doorknob and smirking.
“Showing up without any notice.”
“I’m just visiting secretly for now.”
Without a word, Rosel reached out and lightly tapped Raniel on the head. Despite being touted as humanity’s ultimate power, a grand mage who reached godly heights…
“Come in.”
In front of Rosel, she was still just a child.
“It’s cold out.”
Even before his long-lost child, it was difficult to keep a serious expression. With a relaxed smile, Rosel appeared more welcoming. Anyone who knew Rosel might have doubted their own eyes.
“It’s almost summer, Master.”
“…Must you be so nitpicky? And even if it’s summer, it’s cold in the evening. Just go with it…”
“I’m a Hero, so I don’t feel cold.”
“…”
What a child she is.
With a click of his tongue, Rosel shook his head. Following Rosel into the mansion, Raniel couldn’t help but grin.
*
“…Hasn’t the mansion become somewhat extravagant?”
Raniel blinked in amazement.
The mansion was bigger than she remembered, and the laboratory that had been modestly renovated into one corner of the mansion now rivaled a decent magic tower’s lab in size.
“No, is this the equipment from the Blue Tower?”
Incredibly expensive magical tools.
As Raniel examined the facilities in the lab, she doubted her own eyes, while Rosel shrugged.
“I didn’t buy any of this. The tower masters, the court mages, came and expanded it without my consent.”
“…Why would they do that?”
“Why? Well, you see…”
Rosel pointed to the hallway.
The hallway, entirely remodeled into a display area, was adorned with various trophies and medals. All of them were addressed to Raniel and Rania.
“They’re all busy keeping an eye on you.”
“My eye?”
“If anyone feels the slightest guilt or thinks they’ve wronged you, they seek me out, bringing those things as gifts.”
He added that the Blue Tower Master especially was nervous. His face pale, he had bowed his head with the dignity of a tower master thrown aside.
“The White Tower Master, who came carrying gifts, teased him mercilessly…”
“You should’ve chosen your line better, haha!”
“I’m practically his sister. We’re on sisterly terms! Jealous? I bet it makes our Blue Tower Master sick!”
“It wasn’t a pretty sight to behold.”
“Doesn’t surprise me.”
Sisterly? What does that even mean?
While Raniel tilted her head in confusion, admiring the research facilities and awards, Rosel watched her with a proud gaze.
“You wouldn’t know how much you’re praised, would you?”
She flinched as a shudder ran down her shoulders.
Before coming here, she had been poring over the articles featuring Tephran.
“Ah, I know…”
“Do you really think news could reach that far? Come here. I’ve saved something I thought you’d like.”
Read it all over during dinner.
Rosel said so, and it indeed happened.
“Wow, wow…”
Raniel had to reread the article she had already skimmed through while eating—a far from enjoyable experience, as she forced a reaction before Rosel, whose eyes eagerly awaited her response.
After a long-awaited meal with her master, Raniel had to rub her twitching mouth for a while to stop the forced smile.
“So, you’re planning to stay for about three days before heading back?”
“Yes, I can’t leave the frontline for too long.”
“It’s understandable but still disappointing.”
“If I have the chance, I’ll visit more often.”
There’s no way that would happen.
Rosel smiled bitterly and sipped his coffee.
“Anyway, make sure to relax during your time here.”
“Yes, that’s the plan.”
Laid back on the sofa, Raniel laughed.
Suddenly glancing out the window, the night had deepened. The stars sparkled outside, leading Raniel to think.
That guy Cardi, he probably read the letter by now.
He had likely spent a long time contemplating in front of it, but the old elf she knew wouldn’t turn away from facing it. He must have opened it out of fear.
“That guy will surely think the Betrayer will blame him…”
But in Raniel’s eyes, that wouldn’t be the case.
The Betrayer had always missed Cardi. It wasn’t hatred or complicated feelings. So what was written in the letter might be…
3.
“I probably won’t be able to meet you again.
I know. I have no right to do so.
I shouldn’t even meet you, as it would only harm us both. I’m no longer the Saint, and you’re no longer the Grand Magus. Moreover, I’m not the Gleria you long for.
I am, Gletus.
I’m the heretic known as the Betrayer.
I realize this sometimes, but each time I return to my senses, I realize it’s too late. I can never be Gleria again.
I know, truly.
I know that you cannot keep your promise.
That I’ve come too far to turn back. Even if a miracle happened for me, I shouldn’t be allowed. But whenever I close my eyes, all I can see is the brilliant past.
Ah, it was so joyful.
The adventures with Ganikalt, playing with the children alongside Belial, every moment spent with you, Armiel, I miss them all. I almost wish I could forget everything.
Do you feel the same?
I’ve thrust a horrible role upon you.
You alone must remember everything vividly and clearly. It would surely be wrong to grumble at you. I’m sorry, Armiel.
…It’s a bit difficult to write this letter.
Do you know? This letter, I’ve rewritten it so many times already. I only write letters when I’m in my right mind… but every time I open my eyes, the letter becomes a mess. So I keep rewriting, resulting in jumbled sentences.
But still, I want to say this.
No matter what terrible death I meet.
Even if the salvation I wish for is crushed.
Even if I lose everything.
Until the very end, I won’t blame you.”
The writing was shaky.
Ink smudged, sometimes words blurred on the paper.
Traces of corrections littered the sentences.
“…”
It didn’t take long for Cardi to read the letter that must have taken a considerable amount of time to complete. When he finally finished the last sentence, he quietly put the letter down.
Cardi covered his eyes with his hand.
In the end, there were no words of blame.
No curses, no reproaches, none of that existed. What remained in the letter was its opposite—a vow of not blaming him until the end.
I couldn’t keep my promise.
I couldn’t choose anything.
And yet she speaks. She isn’t the Gleria you know. Therefore, there’s no need to save her, no need to keep the promise. As he read that line over and over, Cardi gritted his teeth.
Miracles cannot occur.
Too far a journey had been traveled for that.
While the case of Kyle suggested the possibility of a disaster returning to humanity, such a miraculous event was impossible in her case and shouldn’t happen.
She had gone too far.
Even if the choice to return her to humanity and allow her to live again lay before him, it shouldn’t be made. Because she herself wouldn’t want that.
“I miss you, Armiel.”
At the very bottom of the letter.
A single line scribbled in small letters. With hollow eyes, Cardi stared at that line for a long time. The absence of blame made the pain resonate more deeply within him.
…What did Raniel wish for?
What did she hope for by delivering this letter?
The reason might lie in the last letter remaining. Cardi opened the envelope emblazoned with the Hero’s insignia. Inside was another operational document. However, it bore a slightly different format from the operational document Raniel had crafted with his help previously.
It was the last page.
The page shown to no one.
As Cardi read the contents written on that page, light returned to his hollow eyes. The more he read through the densely filled sentences, the more Cardi’s gaze wavered, and the tips of his fingers trembled as he held the paper.
What entered his vision were the possibilities.
The last chance granted to Cardi.
“This is the last stage of the operation shared only between you and me. I know this shouldn’t be the case. I have to take everything from her and thoroughly crush it. I know that… but…”
At the bottom of the page.
Cardi gazed at Raniel’s parting words.
“This is not for the Betrayer.”
“This is a final goodbye to the hero who once sought to save the world, a respectful gesture towards you, my senior.”
She was saying.
“You have the right to do this.”
He would trample everything belonging to Gletus the Betrayer.
However, he would not take everything away from Gleria the Saint. That was the tribute paid to the hero of the past.
“It’ll be a cruel request.”
“The choice is yours, Cardi.”
Choose. The choice is yours.
“…Ah, ha.”
Cardi let out a laugh.
A cruel request, is it?
As he straightened his face, Cardi laughed. It was absurd to think that this damn junior prepared all this behind his back, that this was all laid out for him.
It wasn’t a cruel request.
This was the last chance given to Cardi.
Would he seize that opportunity?
Or would he again choose nothing and live in regret for centuries? Or would he end his life in regret?
The answer felt almost predetermined.
