-- For Valentine Argentia, meeting the woman was both an inexplicable happiness and a misfortune beyond description.

　The first time they met was when Rembrandt Argentia, his father and the man who had led the forerunner of the Silverwing Knights, had introduced her to him, saying he had groomed her for a second marriage.

　Both his late eldest brother and Valentine had been said to bear a striking resemblance to his father, but he had never dreamed that they would even be similar in their tastes in women.

　After all, as much as he missed the woman he had just met, he was sure that it would not be reciprocated.

　Although it was extremely regrettable, he had no choice but to dismiss it as a lack of connection.

　I'm not going to be able to get rid of it.

　--A few years later, one day, several years passed.

　In the midst of the unification war that had engulfed the entire continent, the motherland and my father had descended to the military ranks of King Alfred of the Westland Kingdom, and talks were underway about taking on the official duties of the kingdom in exchange for the retirement of the old officers.

　You will be able to find out how to obtain ...... mithril, a rare metal of unknown origin, from a black market trader who had been acting suspiciously in the country, was arrested, and Valentine, who had been unofficially appointed as the head of the newly-formed order, was to be in charge of the investigation.

　There is no fault in the arrest and interrogation itself.

　That black marketer was dealing in a number of illegal products and was unusually tight-lipped about how he obtained Mithril.

　If there was any misfortune - the woman and her young daughter were also staying in the citadel where the black marketer was being held.

　It was just a minor coincidence.

　The father had missed his wife and children to safety during an engagement with King Alfred, but he decided to recall them when the lecture and the merger were decided, and on the way there he was to stay in the citadel where Valentine was stationed - that's all.

　That night the citadel was raided by an unidentified group of men and suffered extensive damage.

　--The number of casualties among the soldiers was so great that the functioning of the fortress was practically lost.

　--The black merchants were slaughtered to the point where they were unable to retain their original form.

　--Rembrandt Argentia's young wife was also murdered, and his young daughter was lightly wounded.

　--Valentine Argentia, who commanded the troops and was in a position to protect that woman, was also physically destroyed to the point that it was a miracle she wasn't dead.

　Ostensibly, the incident was announced as a raid by a former nobleman opposed to the merger of states, and in place of the recalcitrant Valentine, his unworthy brother Carmine, who was away from home at the time, was recalled as the Knight Commander.

　Valentine doesn't even know who made the decision to cover up the situation.

　Was it his father, who thought that his defeat against an unidentified organization was a disgrace to his people, or was it the king at the time - not King Alfred, but the king of the absorbed party - who used it as an excuse to purge the thoroughgoing warriors?

　For Valentine, it didn't matter either way.

　A secret investigation of the incident was later conducted under Carmine's command, and it was discovered that the mastermind of the attack was a group of mithril traffickers, the Agat Ram, who were deeply involved in the trafficking, to keep the black marketers quiet.

　The woman's daughter, hoping to avenge her mother's enemy, threw herself into battle as a silver-winged knight, disguising her s*x, and here we are...










'--Garnett. You may have forgotten, but you and your mother and daughter (father) weren't the only ones who were there that day, that time and place.

　From the top of a branch of a certain large tree in a corner of Athropolis, Valentine looked down on the cityscape that had been knocked down in the middle of the chaos all by himself.

　Black smoke and flames rose from everywhere in the town, and water currents controlled by the aquatic demon race tried to extinguish the fire, and columns of fire rose in other places.

　But Valentine's consciousness was not focused on such devastation, but only on the sight of Garnett and Luke White Wolf, running through the main street without a sideways glance.

'Vengeance ...... Oh, yes. This is my revenge against Agart Ram. But it's not my revenge. I've just been cruelly defeated as a commander, so I have no right to do anything noble like revenge.

　There's no one to listen, but Valentine speaks with an air of performance, revealing his emotions.

　The white masked face is usually hidden by the wizard's hood and bizarre bangs, and even now it is impossible to see the expression on the face, but the tone of his voice is richly inflected, as if to compensate.

This vengeance is that woman's. I had no reason to believe that she would kill me. She took my life just for being there. The only thing I can do to make amends is to take revenge against her - don't you think?

　There is an eerie feeling of delusion and confusion that seeps out from behind the cheerfulness of his speech.

　If someone else had been there, I would have felt an inexplicable sense of dread.

　Was it really only my body that was broken at that time?

　Even the mind was shattered and twisted together in a distorted form.

　...... Such a sensation must have caused him to doubt Valentine's sanity.

　But there is no one to blame for the man's strangeness, and his emotional outbursts continue to get worse.

'You are the very life form of your mother. There is no one more worthy of being the agent of her vengeance. That's why I wanted you to move on and not anyone else: ...... I wanted to be present at this moment in time ......!

　So Valentine didn't want to wait for Garnett's return to earth to tell him that Agat Ram was lurking in the dungeon.

　He didn't want to wait for Garnett's return to earth to tell him that Garnett was lurking in the dungeon, because he wanted to be there when the girl who was worthy to take revenge on behalf of the woman took her revenge on Agat Ram.

　It's nothing more than a delusion that disregards logic and efficiency.

　Of course, there was a chance that he wouldn't be able to find any clues about Agart Ram even if he dove into the dungeon.

　In a way, it could be said that Valentine had won the bet.

　A gamble that won't give him anything but satisfaction.

'...... Luke White Wolf. Thank you so much for bringing that thing here. I'm sure that when all is said and done, I'll be a good brother-in-law (sibling)--

　At that moment, a ray of heat pierced Valentine's chest from behind.

'----'

　It was a glow, and therefore soundless.

　A fist-sized, scorched hole was drilled into his body.

It's a good thing that you're not the only one. It's either the Adventurer's Guild or a member of the Order. ......

　Valentine didn't realize it, but an automatic doll found what looked like a human being screaming in the trees and shot it in the back with a heat wire device in its arm.

　It's not that they were targeting you, but rather that they happened to see you and wanted to kill you.

I'm not going to be able to say that I'm not going to be able to get it right. Both in body and spirit .......

　Just as the man-shaped automaton turned on its heel in the tree and was about to return to the building that was integrated with the trunk - there was a dull thud and the doll, which was only headless, crashed down.

　The headless doll lost its balance and fell, crashing into the ground as it hit the branches again and again, tossing its limbs at strange angles and becoming immobile.

''-- It was the head you should have aimed for, wasn't it?

　And the lost neck up was in the hands of Valentine, who had a wind hole in his chest.

'I've been dabbling in various means to keep my life together for a long time. I even put my trust in the human body modification of wizards, which is why my body is not able to die easily. However, it's only recently that I've been able to travel so far ...... oh?

　Valentine noticed that the doll's head, held in both hands, had long since stopped functioning and crushed it with a boring effort.

　He then ran his hand over the hole drilled in his chest, let out a melancholy sigh and shook his head.

'These clothes, they're on loan from a friend, remember?　What will Ambrose say to me later? He's surprisingly obsessed with clothes.