Roy, get the bread!
'Whew!　Cruz took the meat~!
Come on, come on, come on. No fighting.
　Tina admonishes the fussy children.
　Rather than lively banter, it's more like a fierce battle.
　There are more than twenty children alone at the table of the Holy Dragon Church, fighting over Nacht's food, which is laid out so tightly that it has even become a stylistic beauty since Nacht came to sleep here.

'I'm sorry, Nacht. I've been getting food every day.
　Tina says politely.　
　But there's a huge amount of meat cheek by cheek in her mouth, and she even has food scraps on her mouth, and it seems she's rather more eager to eat than the kids.
　Normally, her sister would share and put up with the children's greed, but she doesn't seem to have any desire to do so.
　She joins the children in fighting over the food on a daily basis.
　It looked just like the table we used to have around in the otherworldly cafe (guild), and I was a little bit jealous of that.

　In the midst of such a fierce war, there were naturally some who didn't have the courage to participate in the war, and the little girl sitting in the corner, for example, was cringing as she watched the food disappear. Their eyes seemed somewhat covetous.

''Don't you want to mix it up?''
　Nacht said, and the little girl said with her eyes down.

'I'm ... after everyone else, okay.'
　It's an auspicious attitude.
　But it would be unbecoming of a child.
　If anything, those who should be behaving that way--

Oh, Mr. Roy!　That's my meat. Ah, Mina, it was the last piece of meat--!
　She must be a foodie, a priestess of this church.
　Nacht takes two plates from in front of her and places them in front of the little girl.

'Ah!　What are you doing, Nacht-san!
　I ignore Tina's mutterings, as usual.

'People will be given a chance - and yet, there are some things you can't grasp if you don't reach out to them. I'm sure there will be unknowns that you don't know about in the place where you have the courage to go--
　Nacht brought the special pudding, which she scooped up with a wooden spoon, to the little girl's mouth.
　Then she hesitated a little bit, and after hesitating a little bit, she vigorously took a bite of the pudding.

''Mmmm!　Hmmm!　Delicious.
　Nacht smiled back at the little girl who spilled her honest opinion.　

'Thanks, Nacht!
　Nacht finished bringing in the last of the food, picked up a slice of sandwich and turned his back on the table that had been turned into a war zone.

　He stepped outside, leapt lightly, and sat down on the roof.
　In a position that was much more comfortable, Nacht activated one skill (skill).

''-- Earth Spirit Magic (Earth Magic), Puppet Creation (Golem Creation).
　With the emanation of magical power, it defines the figure.
　The figure is human, the gender is female, and the figure of the elephant, trying to make it a beloved woman - stop.
　Because I thought it is a little boring to play with dolls and get fancy.

　Hence the image is changed.
　Since what has already been defined is not reversed, the figure is a human being, a woman, and Nacht has chosen a maiden who was recently a maiden as his subject.

　The soil flows like a living thing.
　In a mere instant, the mere soil took the place of a person. The slender limbs and soft chest and waist. The color of the lump of earth changed with magical power and became a reddish skin color.
　Everyone would already deny that it was earth.
　The softly parted hair dances gracefully.

''Excellent--''

　Even with Nacht's magic, a doll can be made to look just like a figure.

"--Manipulation (control).　
　At Nacht's will, the doll in the form of Tina swung her sword, hardened with a clod of clay.
　She grasped the hilt and sank deeply into her hips - a flash.
　The wind chirped as it ripped the atmosphere thin and yet sharp.

'What are you doing?　Oh, my God!　Wow, there are two of me!　Doppleganger!
　Tina shouted loudly as she followed Nacht through the dining room table.
　Nacht laughs at Tina's reaction, which is as funny as ever.

'No, it's just a clay figure. Well done, isn't it?

Awesome!　I mean, it's too similar!　Bu, it's creepy...

'Awesome!　I mean, it's too similar!　It's scary...
　The same tone rang out without missing a beat.
　The puppet operated by Nacht opened its mouth to speak.

''Whoa!　Well, don't do that!

What, it's just a bit of fun - you can combine creative and manipulative magic to create something like a person.
　Nacht waved his hand and the doll easily returned to the dirt.

'But I suppose it's a completely different force than these that creates the illusion of the dead--'
　Nacht reminds me a bit of the old days.
　Looking back, it seems like the most exciting moment in the gaming era was that moment of choosing a profession, picking out a skill (or skills), that moment.
　The agony of narrowing down the infinite number of options.　
　That moment of wavering on the line between obsession and practicality is a very exciting one.

　I have the experience of creating three characters, and I have memorized almost all of the thousands, tens of thousands of skills (skills) that are vastly different. I've always wondered how they can remember the names of their skills when they can't remember English words.
　What kind of skills (skills) does this demon race use?

The actuality of it, Nacht-san, do you know what it is...?

Well...

I hope it will work out soon - because I'm sure that everyone who has gone before you wouldn't want anyone to cling to the past.
　Tina spun the words as if remembering the old days.

'Thirty-four - there used to be children here -'
　With that, Tina took out a single black and white photograph from her chest and pointed to each of the children reflected in it, and said.

'Veru-kun, Filia-chan, Yuri-chan, Henri-chan, Tell-chan, Leanne-chan--'
　The young children who were reflected there were not at the table earlier.

'That's right, there are many people I would like to see again, too. There are a lot of people I would like to see again, and some of my friends I can no longer see. I'm sure they are the ones whose lives would have been saved if I had met the Fire Dragon-sama earlier.......
　Tina says, as if thinking of her lost comrades who have died, suffering from hunger and disease.

'But the dead don't come back to life - I'm sure they wouldn't want to come back to life after all this time, either.
　Nacht nodded quietly at Tina's words.

'Resurrecting the dead is just the ego of the living, after all. But, well, I suppose it's not wrong to wish them to live.
　It's not wrong to want someone to live and be happy, if only we could distinguish between reality and fantasy.
　But most of the time, it's probably just a wish for yourself under the guise of being for someone else.

'No, wait...'
　Nacht uttered to himself, and now he remembered.　

'Kurone-san and Shirone-san didn't die ... just copied my memories, right?

Mr. Nacht...?
　As Tina stared at him curiously, Nacht turned his thoughts around.

　The first mistake he made was when he saw the black-robed army.
　Puppets and lumping them all together, this was a mistake to begin with, the army in black were puppets, but the woman at the head of the group was surely not a puppet, but a human being, just like Tina and Kiria. Because of the large number of people, it was a thing, Nacht had mistakenly assumed that it was a thing.

　That was why the women didn't wear robes, and the black-robed legions wore robes.
　To hide their appearance.
　More specifically, to hide the doll's appearance from the eyes of the soldiers.

　The conclusion to be drawn was naturally one, a fact that would be known not only to Nacht, but to everyone living in this city.
　The City of God--as the word "City of God" implies, some kind of power that gives the doll memories is only effective in this city.

''The realm system, huh--''
　That's what we used to call a power that has a constant effect on a certain section of the city, in the game era.
　Among them, there were only a few skills (skills) and tools (items) that had an effect that could cover a single city.
　The guild, the guildmaster of the "Armpit from the Chest" guild possessed - the "Holy War (Jihad)", which is probably the most famous realm-based ultimate treasure (Ultimate Item), should be able to cover at least a single city with ease.

　But that was clearly for battle, and it doesn't mesh with the mysterious phenomena that are happening at the moment.
　Nacht had an idea of one such skill (skill) as well. But that would probably be wrong.

'Phantom Magic - the boundary between dream and reality (Dreamland) - with that one, you could gather up an entire city and turn it into a dream city.'
　It was Nacht's companion, an obstructionist specialized dreamer - a realm-based illusion he could handle.
　Surely, in an ideal dream, people could play with the dead.

'But no - if you can handle that level of magic, you don't need to make dolls or implant hearts.
　That's exactly what he would be doing in his dream, hanging his head without permission, following orders without even being aware that he was being manipulated.
　Besides, only Nacht should be able to successfully resist.

''Hmmm, it bothers me--''

'Huh, there are some things even Nacht's can't understand.

"The wisdom of man is a very impressive thing...
　Nacht is actually at the mercy of this.

'I see - but I think it's a shame.

Shame?

If we can dwell on the past, I'm sure it would have been a lovely power, if only we hadn't used it for bad things.
　At such words, Nacht couldn't help but think deeply.
　Tina's true intentions, which would have casually spilled out, turned into a new option in Nacht's mind.

''--Ah, I see. ''Nice power'' - that was a blind spot - indeed, you may be right...''
　I came up with one tool.
　It is not a rare tool. Perhaps there were a thousand or two thousand of them even in the game era.
　It's not unique like the ultimate treasure, nor is it as powerful as the special skills (skills) of the Dreamer. However, Nacht did not have it.
　In front of Tina's dumbfounded face, Nacht was enjoying himself for the first time in a long time, and he had a big smile on his face, which seemed to be amused.