Bran!

　The words came out of my mouth without a second thought. The name of my twin sister, the one who shared my blood.

　Sakura turns around in surprise, and the figure in the window also hurries to look at the street.

　The face - a pale face, much like Noir's - was cowering in fright, eyes peeled back in unspeakable surprise and fear.

　There was so much to say.
　There were many things he wanted to ask.

　But Noir was unable to squeeze his voice out of his throat as he looked up at Bran, who had leaned out of the high floor window.

　He hadn't noticed it when he could only see the right side of his profile, but now that they were facing each other head-on, he understood what he hadn't noticed before.

　The left side of Bran's frightened face was etched with a distorted, gouged-out mark.

'Oh, oh no, lie, I hate ......!

　Bran hugged himself with only his right arm and his empty left sleeve, and with a small shake of his head, he backed away with a pale face.

　What the hell happened to her body - it wasn't a noir that couldn't guess what was going on in her body.

　In the battle at the Demon King's Castle, Bran had the spellprint of the summoning magic that the Demon King's army had measured on his left arm, and the spellprint was made to run out of control by Noir's interference, and he was dragged into the distortion of space and disappeared.

　It was none other than Noir himself who had taken his left arm and carved an ugly wound into it.

'Why, oh no, no, because, but no, no, I don't want to, I'm ......!
'Wait!　Bran!

　Bran holds his head in obvious delirium and the hood comes off, exposing his white hair.

　The long hair, which reached down to his waist, which was matching in different colors of white and black, had been torn off like his left arm, or had been shortened to the extent that it covered the nape of his neck.

　And then, without listening to Noir's desperate call, Blanc retreated to the back of the room with a step as if he was about to fall.

'Bran!'
No, noir!

　Sakura grabbed Noir, who was about to run into the grounds without a second thought, and held him back with a strong grip on her arm.

　-- was the next moment.

　A small figure, different from Bran, landed lightly on the wooden wall not far from the two of them.

'It's noisy. I'm sure you don't have any guests scheduled.

　A girl stares down at Sakura and Noir from the top of the wall as she softly flips her skirt, which is tailored with fine fabric, exposing her legs, which are wrapped in white tights.

　Her outward features are not demonic, but exactly human.

　The question of whether there is a girl in a place like this is disproved by Sakura and the others themselves in the first place, popping up and disappearing like a bubble from the floating side.

　If they had honed their skills to be suitable for exploration, even a dainty girl who may or may not have crossed fifteen could step into the depths of the dungeon alongside a skilled adventurer.

''You're a resident of this living quarters?　I'd like to have a little chat with you!

　Sakura quickly raised her voice to call out to her.

　But the girl only returned her wary gaze as she stroked her own slender chin with her fingertips wrapped in a long, thin handbag.

''I refuse. What do you think these walls are for? We do not wish to associate with outsiders. I don't care if it's just a neighborly relationship with a native, but a person from the ground who just came here yesterday and today is very, very bad.

　At the unattached reply, Sakura cut off her words once, feeling uncomfortable.

　The girl looked at them in silence for a long time, then opened her mouth not to Sakura, but to Noir, "You look a lot like Bran.

'You there, much like Bran. I don't know what kind of relationship you have, but she probably doesn't remember you. As I said before, you will only cause her half-hearted pain. Please take it away.
What do you mean, ......?　Remember, they don't: ......!

　Noir raises his voice in a way that would be unthinkable on a normal day.

　The girl on the wall let out a long breath in a fed-up manner, and then a clear old man's statement was thrown at her from behind.

'I'll explain the situation to you, man.
Algernon, you're back early.

　There he was, a healthy old man with a straight spine.

　He wasn't wearing the black robes Luke had told me about, but was that Algernon, the human representative to the council?

　Behind Algernon, several humans were moving a cart, and Algernon directed them to bring it inside the living quarters.

'Take care of the rest,' said Algernon. Just stick it in the warehouse as usual.
'...... Okay, I understand. I'll leave it to you to deal with the situation here.
Oh. Alright, ...... I'm a little bored myself, so I'll make it quick.

　After watching the girl descend to the other side of the wall, Algernon turned to Sakura and Noir.

'I picked up Bran when I was getting much more comfortable in Asropolis. I'm sure it was some kind of magical experiment that went wrong, or maybe it was just lying on the ground in a tattered state.
...... ugh ......
I couldn't just leave him there, being a council member. I took him home and had him treated, but I couldn't heal a good deal of his body, including one of his arms, and his tattered mind.

　Sakura quickly interrupts Algernon's narrative, which continues without stagnation.

'The girl just said that she doesn't 'remember', are you sure you've lost your memory?
You know. It's not like we're experts on anything. I can only speculate as long as I can get my hands on the name. You may remember or you may not want to say ......, but it doesn't matter to us.

　Sakura was dismissively amused by the too straightforward reply.

　It's no use asking because we don't understand,'' she said, forcing me to agree that it's useless to raise any more doubts.

　Even if they continued to pursue the matter, they would just continue to say that they don't know what they don't know and don't need to know, and there would be no way to beat them.

　Sakura glanced at Noir and gave a small shake of her head, telling him unspokenly that this was the end of the reconnaissance, before turning her gaze back to Algernon again.

'...... I see, sorry for the disturbance. By the way, this is a personal question, but do you remember the name Shiranui Kurando?
'Siranui Claude?　Why do you use that name ......, hmmm ......?

　Algernon contorted his face quizzically, looked intently into Sakura's face, and then spread his arms out in an exaggerated display of emotion.

'Seriously!　Unbelievable!　You're not Siranui Sakura!　They say Claude's guy left it back home!
'You remembered. My father can tell you what happened to the Shiranui Kuran at ...... .......
How could I forget?　As I'm sure you've already told your chieftains, when we were sneaking past the Demon King's Castle, he single-handedly let us all go!　Shucks, I've got to go. ......

　Algernon scratched his head of rich white hair, his eyes and mouth twisted in a mixture of happiness and confusion.

It is not reasonable to send away the daughter of a great benefactor. It's not that I don't want you to be free to come in and have a cup of tea, but it's at my discretion to do so. What do you think, do you want to come by?