I'm sure you've heard of it.

　As if in response to my words, Bruder casually muttered these words. The words were so nostalgic that I couldn't help but clear my throat and open my lips to reveal my teeth.

"That's what I was thinking at first. At first, I thought that's what I was going to do. I was going to redeem myself. But it's no fun to go back to the same old ways.

　I said this lightly, and Saint Mattia's eyes tightened. The sharp look that seemed to pierce anyone who looked at her pierced my body. It was as if she was silently telling me that she would not allow such a thing to happen. It was as if he was going to sew me into place.

　Even though I told her I would not take such a step. But the saint didn't seem to know that her gaze was poisonous to others. My eyelids trembled convulsively.

　Yes, even if they had once smeared that inescapable sludge in the depths of my memory. I'm too stubborn to go down the same path once again to avenge them. Yes, too stubborn.

　There are better ways to do this.

I respect your words, Lugis. But if you're too reckless, I'll have no choice but to reach out. In that case, I will make you obey my words. Understood?

　As if Mattia's gaze wasn't enough, he sharpened his words. She raised one eye and let her voice ring out.

I'm not going to risk it. You see, Mattia, this city of Belle Fain runs on two wheels. There may be other mechanisms, but those are the two central ones. So if you want to do something about Belle Fane, you just have to get them to stop meshing.

　It is no longer necessary to say what the gears are. Mordor-Gorn, the raiding lord. And his daughter, the Steel Princess Vestaline Gorn. It is because of the two of them working well together that the city keeps turning. I guess you could say that they complement each other just fine.

　Of course, just because one of them falls doesn't mean that Belfain can't handle it.

　Perhaps Mordor alone, or Vestalines alone, would be capable of ruling on their own. To a certain extent, the scale can be maintained. But that's all. It is possible to rule. Being able to rule is one thing. Whether Belfain is a threat is quite another.

"You're trying to get them to fall out?　That's not going to happen.

　Bruder said as he opened the top of a bottle of wine on the table. He had finally lost his patience. Then I took out a chewing tobacco from my pocket and put it in my teeth. Thinking about it, I hadn't been able to enjoy a cigarette calmly since I came here.

　Bruder, his throat rumbling and his stomach churning with rum, continues to speak in lieu of exhaling.

Assassination is still the way to go. I hear they're so tight, so tight it's unbearable!

　Bruder's eyes, slightly laced with drunkenness, were cloudy as if they were covered with some kind of film. The words that came out of his mouth were as if he were throwing away the emotions that were inside of him. I guess it's impossible to ask Bruder to be normal about this topic.

　Mattia looks at Bruder suspiciously at this state of affairs.

　But what? Nothing to worry about, I know them all too well. I know what they are.

But not so much. Seeing them yesterday confirms it. They're like cogs in a wheel, and deep down they're not even close to being in synch.

　Yes, they seem to mesh, but their natures are fatally mismatched.

　On the one hand, they are plunderers by nature. On the one hand, they believe that life is about taking from something, and on the other hand, they believe that we are born to protect something.

　Right now, it's just a temporary combination of the two. They are conveniently covering up their incompatibility with a kind of parent-child affection. But if one thing slips, it's over. The wheel no longer moves.

　Bruder's throat stopped pouring the rum. His eyes twisted, as if he was unsure of my intentions. Then, as if to encourage me to speak, he placed the bottle of rum on the table.

All I need is a clue. All you need is a spark, a seed of doubt that will stir something deep in your heart.

　A seed of doubt, Mattia muttered next to me, repeating. She looked as if she had something on her mind. I didn't think that Mattia would react, so I continued to speak while I was momentarily distracted.

If even one of the seedlings sprouts, the rest will be easy. In normal conversation, they'll try to act normal. But in their hearts, the child begins to doubt the parent's love, and the parent wonders when the child will turn against him. In the blink of an eye, love turns into a lump of mud.

　It is obvious what happens when the gears that are no longer in sync twist and turn in an attempt to move. The only thing left for it to do is to decay on the spot and lose its function.

　The most powerful curse in this world is doubt. Doubt is the mind itself.

　Doubt can never be wiped out from a person's mind. Even if you struggle to hide it, even if you force yourself to cover it up, it will come out from behind the roost when the opportunity arises. I know better. More than anyone here.



　Bruder's lips moved in a very confident manner. His mouth rippled with drunkenness as he slowly opened it.

"I'm confident of my upbringing and my mean streak. I'll make it work, though. I know when people are suspicious.

　Then Lugis and Mattia interjected. I don't add any words to that. It's not that I'm being condescending.

　It was not a condescending remark, but a joke to lighten the mood. Isn't the saint a little too uptight?

　I shrug my shoulders, take the chewing tobacco out of my mouth, and exhale the air that has built up in my mouth. A faint, pleasant odor floated through the air. The paints are already in my hands. I just need to figure out how to paint it. How should I ask them to move?

　Just as I was thinking about this, Bruder tipped the bottle of rum to his mouth and downed the contents in one gulp. His throat rumbled loudly, as if he didn't want to be burned by the liquor, and his eyes flickered with a hollow light as he stared at me.

　As expected, this caught me off guard.

　Bruder is a drinker by nature, but he is not a strong drinker. In fact, I would say that he had a tendency to get drunk easily.

　Therefore, I often saw him drunk, and he often fell asleep in back alleys. I used to take him to the inn every time.

　That's why I was like this. I haven't seen him drink like that since that day. I could feel the thin fingers of some unknown entity tracing my spine.

"I'll go. Oh, I'll go. I'm going to crush their gears, their parent-child bond, in person.

　He was already talking like a drunk. His speech was already that of a drunken man. His speech was beginning to slacken slightly and his eyes were losing focus. But yet, his eyes were definitely looking at me.

　I couldn't help but avert my gaze. Because his appearance was so similar to that of Bruder, who had once been with me.

　It was the very Bruder I had seen that day, the night before the attack on Maldor.