strength of will and unwavering determination. “I have an ambition and I fear no hardship in accomplishing my goal. No matter what sacrifices I must make, even if it destroys my reputation, so be it. I’ll stake my life on it.”

“…Ambition…” Goldof muttered. That word didn’t sound like her at all.

“Yes. I can’t describe my feelings as a ‘dream’ or an ‘ideal’ or any other pretty-sounding words. Dreams can be abandoned, and ideals can be discarded, but when you have an ambition, you can’t be stopped until you’re dead.” She leaned in toward him. Her face scared him. He’d never seen this expression on his liege, whom he’d sworn to spend his life defending. But this was who she really was.

“You wouldn’t understand. Someone who’s never had ambition could never understand how I feel.” Nashetania watched Goldof fall silent and giggled.

Thinking about it now, his relationship with Nashetania went back a long way. But perhaps they’d never spoken candidly to each other before, not even once. Goldof wanted to protect her, but he’d never gotten to know her that deeply.

“What will you…do now?” he asked.

“I’ll escape, and then go meet my comrade to think about what happens next.”

“Your…comrade?”

“That’s right. I have a colleague named Dozzu who has been with me since before I met you. We share the same passionate ambition, and we fight together. I would never betray Dozzu, and Dozzu would never betray me, either.”

“Who…is he?”

“The traitor to fiends. The other fiends are trying to kill him. I’m a traitor to humans, and he’s a traitor to fiends. Tee-hee. A beautiful friendship, don’t you think?” Nashetania joked. “I must be going. The barrier has just about expired. It will be quite a rough battle, but I should be able to manage an escape, at least.”

“…Your Highness…”

“If you survive, I’m sure we’ll meet again. Will we be enemies then, or allies? I would rather you be my ally.”

Goldof wanted to beseech her, Please, come to your senses! But he couldn’t. She was serious about waging war on the Six Braves. The only way he could stop her was to kill her.

Nashetania was about to walk out of the temple when Goldof called after her. “Your Highness…what should I…do?”

“We’re enemies now. You don’t have to address me by my title anymore.” Nashetania started walking away. “Do what you think is right. That’s all I can say.”

“What…does that…?”

“You need to find that out for yourself. I won’t resent you or be disappointed in you. Even if you kill Dozzu or me. Not if you believe you made the right choice.”

“…Your Highness…what’s…your ambition?”

She put one hand on her chest and said with pride, “Didn’t I tell you before? It’s to create a world of peace. To see all the people of the world smile. To build a nation where we can make humans and fiends alike happy. That’s all.”

“Even if…you have to sacrifice…five hundred thousand people?”

“I’d rather have as few human deaths as possible. But my ambitions cannot be fulfilled without some loss of life,” Nashetania stated, and she left the temple.

Was it all a lie? Goldof wondered as he stood alone in the temple. The kind things she said to me when we first met, wanting to protect her, all of it. Was I just another person for her to deceive?

Then he heard Nashetania outside. “I’m sorry I lied to you all this time. It wasn’t want I wanted. But it had to be this way.”

“…Your Highness…”

“But just let me say this. Six years ago, when you told me your wish, it made me so happy I wanted to cry. Someone cared for me from the bottom of his heart. Someone would protect me, even if it cost him his life. I couldn’t believe it.” Nashetania’s voice cracked, just a little. “I’ve lied to you many times, but this—this is true.”

And then he could hear her no more. After a while, he heard Hans’s and Mora’s voices, then the sounds of battle being joined. Goldof stood frozen the whole time.

Goldof didn’t tell anyone that he had hidden Nashetania from them or that he had spoken with her. In a way, he’d already betrayed the group. As they made their way through the Howling Vilelands, he wondered nonstop. What was this objective of Nashetania’s?

If what she wanted was to see everyone in the land smile, then she could just rule as a good queen. She would have been able to do that. Was her ambition to have the whole world under her control? If so, that should have been within her reach, too. With the power of the nation of Piena, Goldof, and herself in battle, along with Nashetania’s fame, it would have been doable. Why did she need to betray humanity, join forces with a fiend, and fight the Braves of the Six Flowers?

And who was Dozzu? Fremy had said that Dozzu was the traitor to fiends, that it fought against Tgurneu and Cargikk. When and why had Nashetania met the traitor fiend?

And who was Nashetania herself? Was the woman he’d loved nothing more than a fabrication? No matter how much he pored over these questions, he found no answers.

Goldof continued to agonize. What should he do now? Nashetania was bound to come after the Braves of the Six Flowers again. Would he fight her then, too? Would he be able to? He couldn’t. She was everything to him. He couldn’t exist without her.

Then would he fight the other Braves to protect Nashetania? No, he couldn’t do that, either. What would happen to the world if all the Braves of the Six Flowers fell? There was no way that Nashetania could actually create a world in which humanity and fiendkind lived together. Goldof couldn’t even consider destroying his race with his own hands.

He was suffering. Who was Goldof? Was he a knight who defended Nashetania, or a Brave who safeguarded the world? If he were forced to choose between the two, then which should he pick? He had to protect

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