Curtis left the prison, saying he would talk about the details later.

　It's a very good idea to be able to have a good time with them.

Now, ...... what's going on?

　To be honest, I really didn't care what Curtis proposed.

　At the risk of being misunderstood, Henriette didn't care what happened to the empire.
　I don't care who becomes emperor, and if Curtis wants to be emperor, he can do what he wants.
　Whether it's possible is another matter, but I don't need to be told that.
　You can do what you want to do.

　Just do what you want.

"If you ask me to help you out, I'll tell you what: ...... I have no reason to do that.

　It is true, in a sense, that Henriette was oppressed by the Empire.
　It's not that you can't do anything directly because she is nominally the head of the Marquess family, but if you go to a party, you're basically ignored, and you'll hear them talking behind your back, or you've been taken out to a party in another country with a defenselessness that begs you to attack them.

　Well, as for the latter, I guess they realized that if Henriette was gone, my uncles were more likely to go off the rails, so I wasn't immediately taken out of the country, but instead, I was forced into the city.
　There are many nominal reasons, but in the end it was a good house arrest, a sacrifice of sorts.

　If Laurus were to be attacked, the next target would definitely be Henriette's city.
　Henriette is made to live there to serve as a smoke signal and, in some small way, to slow her down.

　If they say that she is mistreated for that reason, there is no denying it.
　But.

And frankly, none of that matters.

　It's not the same as saying, "I don't care.
　In the literal sense, it doesn't matter.
　Of course I don't hate them at all ...... and if I dared to put my feelings for them into words, it would be disgusting.

　It's a good idea to be able to have a good time with them.
　That's what empire means to Henriette.

　It is because she is convinced that Henriette only thinks that much in the first place.
　It's not about the "pranks" they play, but about the position they've been put in.

　The reason is simple and clear.
　Because in a way it is only what they deserve.

　The empire only has the best interests of the empire at heart.
　Tolerance is tolerated because it is in its best interest and never out of compassion.
　On the contrary, when profit is above all, they are at liberty to do outrageous things.

　Fortunately, or rather basically, this is not the case: ...... As far as Henriette knows, it happened only once.
　It was an attempt to force the elves into the country's war effort.

　It was an understandable gesture.
　That is how beneficial the elven species is to the war effort, including spirit stones.
　Even if it caused the elves' feelings towards the empire to worsen and arouse the suspicion of other nations and species like the elves, it was ultimately for the good of the empire.

　Again, that decision was an understandable one for Henriette.
　But.
　Whether or not it was convincing was a different story.

　So, Henriette decided to step in, just for a moment.
　I don't know how much sense that action made, but as a result, the elves became what they are today, and Henriette became ostracized.
　And so it is that he had it coming.

　The fact that Henriette feels unimportant for her actions to herself is also because she feels a kind of responsibility ...... no, but that's about half the reason.
　The other half may be that Henriette is an apostle after all.

　An apostle is simply a servant of God and a faithful follower of God's commands.
　Like God, they are on a higher plane of existence than humanity, but the life of God is the only thing that is absolute and unique.

　There is no will or meaning.
　Just a tool for God to realize his ideals.
　That was all it was supposed to be.

　I don't really remember how long Henriette had been Henriette, to tell the truth.
　My earliest memory is vague, and I only remember gazing blankly at the world below.

　The apostle has many powers and abilities, but most of them are essentially sealed away.
　They don't interfere where they don't need to - whether they do or not - but conversely, those abilities that are not meant to interfere were not sealed.
　The world below--the ability to peer into the world of humanity--was one of them.

　Lower, but not lower in the literal sense of the word, just a matter of convenience.
　There is no need to look down, for the world of the apostles and gods is in another dimension.
　As she sat there, like the other apostles, Henriette looked blankly into the void and watched the people.

　That ability is inherently for carrying out God's command.
　The apostle sometimes descends into the world, but basically does not.
　The landing of a higher being, the apostle, would easily upset the balance of the world.

　Increasing God's work in order to help Him would be a mistake.
　That is why the apostles are given eyes to see into the world so that they can wield their power and give voice to the world without having to move around.

　And why the apostles use such eyes to look at the world is not because they want to pass the time at .......
　It was also for God.

　The apostle is different from God and different from man.
　If they think differently, they have different values.
　It is natural for an apostle to be an apostle ...... but sometimes that is the reason for a misunderstanding.
　What God intended and what God wanted was to end up being different from what he wanted.

　Sometimes it was due to a misreading of God's intentions by the apostles, and other times it was due to a misreading of humanity's actions.
　So, when the apostles had nothing to do, they would watch mankind.
　If they could continue to watch and understand humanity, the chances of misunderstandings would be much lower than they are now.

　Just how to view humanity was different for each apostle.
　Some look at humanity as a group - a village or city, some look at a country, and others look at a randomly chosen place.
　But Henriette chose to look at none of them, but at any one person.

　She was not aware of why she did so, and so were the other apostles.
　No one had noticed that the differences in their chosen subject matter was an expression of their individuality.

　But whether they noticed or not, it made no difference what they did.
　It may or may not seem like a random choice, but at least at first Henriette was not aware of it.
　Like the other apostles, she continued to look at humanity for God, or so she thought.

　She doesn't remember when she began to realize it.
　Still, I only knew that there were moments when my heart would beat.


　That's ...... the moment the person I was looking at dies.

　The apostle has no lifespan.
　From such an apostle's point of view, humanity would die in the blink of an eye.

　Rarer are those who can die in their lifetimes.
　What's more, none of the men Henriette saw could die within their lifetimes.

　Either they were killed by someone else or they chose to die.
　It was one or the other.

　Of course, not all people in that world were like that, and many died with their lives.
　Or maybe it was partly because he was not always looking at someone else.

　Henriette was not always looking at someone else.
　If someone died, she would look for someone else, but there was no one to look at, and she was often left in a daze with no one to look at.
　Sometimes the time was longer, and this was more pronounced in times of peace, when there was less conflict in the world.

　This situation changed when Henriette learned of the existence of an object.
　No, I knew it existed before, but I became aware of it in the exact sense of .......
　You're going to be able to find out what you can do with it.

　The name of the thing is a book.

　Again, she didn't know why at the time, but books intrigued Henriette to no end.
　An apostle can't interfere with an object unless he comes down to the world, but a book can be transcribed.
　And so Henriette, when there was no one to look at, read the book ...... and became addicted to it.

　Even if you order books from around the world, the apostle's time is literally unlimited.
　It would certainly be faster to finish it, but fortunately the world was also infinite.
　Although Henriette's god only runs one world, there are many other worlds, and the apostles could see them too.

　The other apostles did not pay attention to the fact that looking at them would not be of any use to God because people's values differed from world to world, but for Henriette, those worlds were more than worthwhile.
　Countless books were it.
　Transcription was also possible, so Henriette could get any number of books ...... but there were also pitfalls.

　As mentioned earlier, values are different in the world.
　It's a good thing that you have a good idea of what you're looking for.

　But fortunately, the values of a certain world fit Henriette very well.
　It was through reading the books of that world that Henriette realized what she held: ...... It may have been fate that this was the world Allen came from.

　It's not just a matter of how much time you have left, it's also a matter of how much time you have left.
　It was anger and lament for the unreasonable.
　For the end seemed only too undeserved.

　And it was then that he began to understand the commonality of those whom Henriette had seen.
　Henriette's view was of the so-called heroes.

　It was exciting to watch their lives.
　To see them smash the unreasonable, to see the tragedy rewritten.
　Not for God, but purely for Henriette herself.

　Henriette liked to read what are called heroic tales.
　It was always exciting to read about the exploits of heroes, to see the moment when tragedy was overturned.

　But at the same time, there was one thing I didn't like about it.
　It was the end of the heroes' lives: ...... their deaths.

　Heroic deaths always come with an untimely death.
　That is the reason for the world and in the end, as if to balance the books, the heroes die a tragic death, a complete reversal from their previous splendor.

　Betrayed by someone they trusted, or caught in the enemy's cunning trap.
　They fall apart without mercy.

　It would have been better if it had only been in a story.
　But the heroes Henriette had seen firsthand had met a similar end.

　Henriette just couldn't stand that.

　But after all, Henriette was an apostle.
　No matter what you think, there is nothing you can do.

　No, it's ridiculous to even think about such things in the first place.
　At least the other apostles don't think of such things.

　Maybe I'm broken, or maybe I'm broken, or maybe I'm not, and that's when I was told to lead a hero to save the world.

　And then Henriette met the hero.

Well, that's what's going on now.

　After all, Henriette does not give a d*mn about the Empire or herself because at the root of it is the perception that she is an apostle: ...... To put it another way, she considers herself an adjunct to the story and deliberately disregards it.

　Whatever happens to the empire, it's not my business, so let it be and be at the mercy of it.
　But I didn't like that the elves were unhappy ...... especially the problem was that I didn't have to do that.

　Sure, forcing the elves to work would have made the empire easier, but it was not necessary.
　So I intervened only briefly.
　That's all there was to it.

　Without that, whatever happens, if it is the result of someone's will, Henriette allows it.
　Because, more than being a former apostle, she shouldn't have been here.

　I reincarnated with Allen because I was worried about him.
　Because I was curious.
　It was simply selfishness, if you will, and I was only interested in what would happen to Allen.

　And although Allen seemed to be the same as ever, he seemed to be happy in this world without problems.
　That's why ......, Henriette, doesn't matter anymore.

　Although I would have preferred to see it through to the end, that is not absolutely true.
　I was happy to have the confidence that Allen was going to be okay.

　There are still some dangerous parts, but he is not alone ...... gone.
　He doesn't have to mourn and suffer and grieve alone, and he doesn't have to stand next to you.

　And now that I know that--

There's nothing more for me to do.

　The question remains, what is Curtis going to do?
　It seems that you've gotten Allen involved somehow, so ...... at the very least, you'll need to get rid of him.

　When you're done with that, ...... then I don't know what I'll be doing.

It's not bad to be an apostle again, huh? ...... Well, I don't know if I'll ever get back.

　At any rate, aside from reincarnating Allen, it's completely arbitrary as far as I'm concerned.
　No wonder there was rather a punishment waiting for you.



...... Well, that's the time. It's just that I don't think there's much difference between the two, no matter what happens.

　Murmuring such things, Henriette squinted, looking into the void.
　You will be able to get the most out of it.
　It was just a matter of thinking about your future, as if it were someone else's business.