"Sora, are you alright?!" Croissant rushed in to help untie her friend, asking with concern.
"Croissant? Everyone… is this… a dream?"
Sora, on the other hand, seemed not to have fully regained her senses from the shock, as if she thought she was dreaming.
That was until she saw a familiar black-haired woman walk into her line of sight.
"Sora, are you okay?" Texas asked in her usual flat tone.
But from Sora's perspective, her voice was filled with such gentleness that the young woman knew this was no dream.
"Miss Texas!!" Sora launched herself into the woman's arms, tears streaming down her face.
"Waaah! I… I… I was so scared."
"Uh… umm… you're safe now. Calm down," Texas, looking a little flustered, tried to comfort her. It was clear she wasn't very good at this sort of thing.
In contrast, Croissant (the one who actually rescued her) stood behind them, watching the two embrace, completely ignored…
"Why do I feel a little sting…?" the girl grumbled.
"I get it, I get it. When you're not the one, nothing you do gets noticed, right?" Exusiai patted her shoulder as if to console her, causing Croissant to brush her hand away, insisting she didn't mean it like that.
The atmosphere was filled with the joy of reunion, so much so that they had completely forgotten…
"Uh, everyone… sorry to interrupt, but I need some backup!" Ren, who was firing relentlessly, found that after the first bullet, the woman was completely unharmed, protected by a blood-red barrier that enveloped her body.
"How… dare you… destroy something so precious to me…" the hoarse voice of the woman kneeling on the ground rose, drawing everyone's attention.
She picked up the shattered fragments of her mask from the floor before slowly turning to look at them… revealing the true face behind the mask.
"!"
Everyone who saw her face gasped in shock, except for Texas, who gripped her sword tighter…
Because more than half of her face was burnt, and both of her eyes were covered by black crystalline minerals.
"She's Infected!" Croissant shouted, her expression grim. Exusiai and Texas both raised their weapons, ready for a fight.
But Ren, upon seeing her face, frowned in confusion…
'She wasn't one of the children from the experiment, was she?' Ren couldn't remember seeing a woman with such features in the laboratory before.
"Unforgivable… Unforgivable!! Every single one of you… you will all pay!!"
BOOM!!! A roar filled with rage, and the blood-colored barrier around her expanded, knocking everyone back.
Except for Ren and Sora, who seemed unaffected by the barrier.
"Everyone!!" Sora, seeing her friends thrown back, looked around at the area now enveloped by the blood-red barrier in despair.
But she quickly came to her senses when she saw the familiar young man running over to shake her, handing her a microphone-like device that was her weapon.
"Senpai, calm down! Everyone is fine right now! All we need to do is take care of that woman."
"Ren? I-is that you? Why---" Sora looked at the halo and wings on the young man's back in confusion, but he quickly cut her off.
"I'll explain later! Right now, we have to---"
As if noticing something rushing in from behind, Ren quickly pushed Sora's body away and dodged to the side.
Swish! But he still couldn't completely evade it, and his shoulder was pierced by a weapon that looked like a violin bow with a sharp tip like a rapier.
"No, Ren!" Sora watched in despair as the blade pierced through the young man's shoulder.
He was injured because he tried to protect her…
This intensified Sora's guilt even more. Seeing the woman's figure approaching only increased the fear in her heart, causing her legs to tremble so much she couldn't even stand.
"Senpai Sora… please provide support!" Ren pulled the bow from his shoulder without a change in expression, then raised the gun in his hand and fired at the woman.
Bang! Bang! But the figure before him was unharmed, protected by the red barrier. Even a charged shot did nothing.
Sora, hearing Ren's words, could only shake her head in despair…
"I… I can't… I… I can't do it," her voice trembled, her eyes welling up with tears, making her look incredibly pitiful.
"I… I don't even know how to fight… I've always… just relied on others."
"Someone like me… someone like me… is just useless," Sora buried her face towards the ground, crying helplessly at her own weakness.
Hearing this… Ren simply said one sentence as he turned to his senpai.
"Senpai… I love your singing."
"…" Sora's tear-filled eyes widened. She slowly looked up and saw the gentle smile the young man was giving her.
"I may not know what kind of times you've been through… or what you've faced to make you think so little of yourself. But no matter how many insults or how many people try to belittle you… your voice is still the most beautiful sound I have ever heard in my life!"
"My mother always told me… that music is like the voice of the heart, able to distinguish or reveal the true feelings of others. But that's not just the sound of an instrument or the composer alone… because the truly important part of a song is the one who sings it, the one who makes people feel the true meaning of the heart!!"
"I know that Senpai Sora's voice must be that kind of voice! A voice that can sing music into the hearts of others!!" Ren stepped forward, using his body to shield Sora as if to protect her.
"A voice… that sings into the hearts of others?" Sora murmured the words, as if something had spurred her weakened heart to fight once more.
Even the woman on the opposing side had a similar reaction…
"Those words… impossible," the masked woman began to show a strange reaction.
Her face, once contorted in rage, now showed confusion for the first time.
"You… where did you hear those words!!"
"No… you… who are you!! What is your connection to my prince!!" The woman roared in anger and confusion. It was probably the first time she seemed confused about the identity of the person before her.
Ren, seeing the woman's strange reaction, had a gut feeling.
'Could she be related to…' Although feeling a little hesitant, Ren decided to say his name.
The true name of this body's owner.
"My name is Hamuel tu Faelra Gustav!"
"The man you're all looking for."
"!!…"
When Ren spoke that name, the woman before him trembled violently… before starting to dig her blade-like fingers into her face, causing blood to stream down gruesomely.
"No… impossible… how can you be him!"
"My prince… my precious one… my family… he can't be here… the Troupe Master is taking care of him… that's right! YES!!… You must be lying!!… You're lying to me!!!"
"Haha… that's right… how could the prince be here… you're very clever, you almost fooled me!!" The woman revealed a twisted smile and stared at the young man with a blurred face.
"For your cleverness… I will sever every tendon in your body… drench every drop of your blood onto the earth!… As punishment for daring to claim to be my prince!!!"
"Even if you struggle and beg for your life… I won't let you die!… And I will force you to watch me bleed your friends, one by one! One by one!!"
The two violins in the puppet's hands behind her began to scrape against the bows in its other two hands.
A melody resembling a horrifying lullaby appeared in his mind.
"♫"
"Argh!!!" Ren clutched his head in agony. A flood of memories rushed in, and the scene before him began to distort, turning into an image of his old home once again.
But Ren still managed to keep his consciousness from being immediately controlled. Thanks to his Sarkaz bloodline, he could withstand it. But if this continued for much longer… he would lose control and have to face that Troupe Master in the dream world.
Even so… the more frightening thing right now wasn't that.
"I'll cut out your tongue and feed it to the dogs!" The figure of the woman with crystals on her face appeared before Ren, her hand grabbing for his neck.
But in the moment the blades on her fingers were about to touch the young man's neck….
Fwoom!! A golden light shot out from behind him, slamming into the woman and forcing her back.
"What is this?!"
As if sensing a powerful aura, the woman felt a disgusting warmth spreading from behind the young man in front of her.
"♫ The light has guided me, what you gave me is the song of tomorrow ♫"
A beautiful voice rose with a bright melody, like a light that helped to dispel the surrounding darkness. Ren, having regained his senses, turned to look behind him with a smile.
"Senpai!"
He saw Senpai Sora, singing with a face full of tears, yet imbued with brave determination.
"♫ No matter how hard it is, I will keep moving forward! ♫"
FWOOM!!! The golden light radiating from Sora's microphone surged out like an ocean wave. The blood-red barrier around them began to dissipate, revealing the figures of everyone in Penguin Logistics standing outside.
"No… impossible!" The woman looked at the music box in her hand, which had stopped playing.
Her face filled with anger and, for the first time, despair.
"The Right of Domination is shifting… it cannot fall to traitors!"
"Shut your mouth!!!" She lunged forward, intending to kill Sora, but Ren, having switched to his Lupo mode, rushed to grab her arm. With the strength of a Lupo, she could barely move when he held her.
"Get out of the way!!" The opponent tried to use the puppet's arm holding the bow to stab him, but Ren dodged with his body, causing her to miss any vital spots. He held her arm tight, refusing to let go, even with his mouth full of blood.
"You're the one who needs to get out of the way… because this isn't your stage anymore."
"It belongs to us, Penguin Logistics!"
Swish!! Texas, appearing from behind, swung her sword at the woman's body.
"Ugh!!" The woman raised both puppet arms to defend, but Texas, already anticipating it, let go of her sword, lunged forward, grabbed both of the woman's arms, and twisted them until they broke.
"Aaargh!!!" The woman screamed in pain. With both puppet arms torn off, threads gushed out from her back like blood vessels.
She decided to let go of the bow that was stabbing the young man and swiped at Texas. But the faster woman saw it coming, grabbed her tightly, and locked her in place.
In the next moment, another woman's figure leaped in.
"This is for… my fifty thousand Lungmen dollars!"
WHAM!!! Croissant, jumping down with a broken hammer in her hand, slammed it into the woman's head, snapping her face to the side and causing her grip to falter.
Ren seized the opportunity, released his hold, and summoned his spear, thrusting it into the center of his opponent's chest.
"Die!!!" Even after being stabbed, the woman didn't immediately lose consciousness. She looked at the young man at close range and, with her blade-like fingers, aimed to tear his throat out.
"...!"
But suddenly, in that instant, the woman's expression changed abruptly, and her hand stopped in mid-air, just before reaching Ren.
Bang! Bang! Bang!! This gave Exusiai the opening to fire several shots into her hand, shattering it to pieces. That's when everyone realized her real hands were also puppets, just with a skin tone like human flesh.
BOOM!!! Ren, seeing the chance, used all his strength to slam her body to the ground, summoning a stone pillar to crash into her torso. The woman's upper body was severed and sent flying by the force of the erupting pillar.
A moment later… her body fell to the ground and moved no more.
"Wooohooo! That was so cool!" Croissant shouted excitedly, while Exusiai looked at the bullets in her gun's magazine with frustration.
"But I'm out of ammo…"
"Well done, Sora," Texas turned and nodded at Sora. The young woman, realizing she had been useful to everyone, began to shed tears of joy.
"Yes!"
"…" Ren walked over to the woman's still body on the ground and bent down to pick up the music box that had fallen beside her.
But just then, the woman's body, which should have been motionless, slowly raised a hand towards him.
"Brother…"
"That… is it… you?"
"...I'm not your brother," Ren replied. But he remembered that just now, as the woman was reaching to strangle him, it was as if she saw something in the final moment and stopped her hand abruptly. That's why he was unharmed.
Ren looked at the woman's eyes, which were obscured by mineral crystals. He hesitated for a moment… but then reached out and touched them.
"Ren!!" Texas, noticing what he was doing, tried to run and stop him.
But she was shocked to see the mineral crystals on the woman's face gradually disappear after the young man's touch, revealing beautiful blue eyes behind them…
Ren's eyes widened in astonishment after seeing the woman's various memories from the mineral crystals he touched.
And when he realized who she was, his eyes trembled violently, and tears began to well up.
"Na… Nagi," the young man spoke the name of the girl who was like a sister and his first family.
Even though this person wasn't the Nagi from his original world, in these memories… she was like Nagi, his sister in this world.
And they were both the same, sharing memories with him like the family he remembered.
"That name… how long has it been since I heard it?"
As the curse in her body began to fade and her eyes could see again, her sanity gradually returned… noticeable as her madness subsided and her pale skin regained its flesh tone.
She looked at the young man's face, which had changed so much from her memories, before giving a sad smile.
"Brother… you've really changed a lot."
"Even so… you're still the prince… my gentle prince."
With that sentence, the woman's body began to turn to dust, a result of the 'Troupe Master's' control dissolving.
"No… no!!" Ren shouted in despair, trying everything to hold onto her life.
"Please don't do this… don't leave me… don't leave me again!!"
"Ren…" It was the first time the others had seen such a desperate expression on his face, as if he had found the person he had been searching for his whole life, only to have them torn away at the last second.
The young woman gazed at the young man's crying face before her and reached out a hand to gently stroke his cheek…
"I'm sorry… that we had to meet like this… but even if I could choose again… I would still be here, waiting for you, always."
"Because we are… family… even without the same blood… or equal status… but to me… you are still… my… brother…" The woman's eyes slowly drooped from the spiritual exhaustion as she gradually faded away.
"No… don't say that, Nagi! You have to stay with me! Please… God… please… don't do this! Don't do this to me again!!"
"I'm sorry… that I can't… watch the stars… with you…"
"Nagi!!!" Ren hugged the woman's body tightly, as if trying to keep her from disappearing.
"If there's a next life… I hope… we can be… born as the same family… and then… we can…"
The woman's eyes slowly closed in exhaustion.
"watch the stars… together…"
The woman's body turned to dust, disappearing from Ren's arms, just as his heart shattered into pieces.
"…" Texas reached out, as if wanting to comfort him.
But in the end, she pulled her hand back and said nothing. She knew this was something he had to go through on his own, and it wasn't something that a word or two could fix.
At the same moment, behind them…
Shatter!! The blood-red barrier shattered and disappeared, and a large number of L.G.D. officers appeared, running towards them.
"What happened? And where are the Thorns?" Ch'en, who had just arrived, her uniform in a battered state, asked Texas in confusion after seeing the place in ruins.
"We took care of the Thorns' leader," Texas answered briefly. Ch'en nodded without saying anything. After seeing the state of the young man sitting silently, she decided not to press them for answers, as everyone in Penguin Logistics had helped a great deal this time.
"You guys go get---"
But as Ch'en was turning to order the L.G.D. units to administer first aid to the others,
suddenly, numerous mysterious figures in red cloaks appeared around them.
"Who are you!" Ch'en, startled, prepared to draw her sword, as did Hoshiguma and Swire.
But then, a familiar shout stopped them.
"Stop, Huijie!"
Ch'en stopped her hand instinctively, then looked towards the voice and saw her uncle walking out of a small alley with three men in black raincoats.
"They are envoys of the 'Celestial Master'… so do not do anything rash," Wei Yenwu said in a firm tone, and this was the first time he had used such a tone with his niece.
"Celestial Master? People from the Celestial Court…" Swire murmured. Her face immediately tensed upon hearing that name, knowing full well that group's goal was to maintain peace between Lungmen and Yan. Their appearance here meant there was something they considered a threat.
"Please hand over the Treasure of Gaul to us," a young man with dragon-like horns said as he walked towards Ren's body.
Texas stepped in to block him.
"Move aside, Selina Texas. We have no problem with you…"
"You are the ones who should move aside. What right do you have to take this from us?" Texas retorted.
"That's right! We fought tooth and nail! While you guys just stood by and watched, and now you think you can just take it!!" Croissant shouted in support, though she secretly thought they could at least offer some money, not just try to force it from them like this.
"We have no obligation to answer that question. If you continue to obstruct… we are willing to use force to take it."
Fwip!! As he finished speaking, the figures in red cloaks began to grasp their weapons, revealing an intimidating aura no different from the Thorns they had just fought.
Texas, seeing this, frowned silently. Normally, she would choose to retreat… but for some reason, she drew her sword, ready to fight back without fear.
But just then, Wei Yenwu stepped in to stop the actions.
"Sorry to interrupt… but I'm afraid I think you should give them a reason."
"Lord Wei…" The man showed respect to the other, but it was merely a facade. What the other was truly thinking, no one knew, but it certainly wasn't respect.
Nevertheless, he still had to show deference to this man and state his reason.
"The Treasure of Gaul is a masterless mysterious power (Gaul is a fallen nation)… other countries have no right to possess it. Our taking it back is not only to ensure its safety but also to prevent others with ill intentions from trying to use it."
After hearing the other party's reason, the expressions on Texas's and the others' faces began to change… because there was nothing in the reason he gave that they could argue against.
Until…
"Such pretty words. And that last sentence… have you included yourselves in that count?"
The sharp words that rang out drew the eyes of the red-cloaked man.
He then met the gaze of a gaunt young man who was staring daggers at him.
"You say you want to act for the peace of the nation, but what you're doing is no different from pathetic thieves who aim to steal other people's things," Ren said with a cold expression, so much so that even the others could feel that the young man was now angry.
"…Watch your mouth, boy. You can insult me, but do not extend it to my country and my comrades."
"Why? Can't stand being called a pathetic thief… because from what I'm seeing, that's exactly what you're doing, isn't it?"
"…" The man narrowed his eyes, and his fingers moved to the sword at his waist.
"Try drawing it. Because that will be the last thing you ever do…"
Fwoom!! Ren's eyes glowed, and a power radiated from around him, creating an aura of a golden human figure that appeared behind him.
Just like that, all the red-cloaked men fell to their knees on the ground, as if they had encountered a being far superior to them.
"Ugh… you… who are you…"
"The owner of the thing you're claiming the right to steal," Ren replied, before turning his gaze around, especially to Wei Yenwu, who was looking at him.
Ren took a deep breath before shouting out.
"My name is Hamuel tu Faelra Gustav!! The last royal of the Gaulish Empire! I have the right to possess this treasure that is an heirloom from my homeland!"
"Is there anyone now who will object to my holding it!!" Ren shouted, showing the music box in his hand to everyone.
"…"
Seeing that no one objected, he looked at the music box in his hand…
"Since no one objects… then I have the right to do this with my own thing!!"
CRACK!!! The music box was squeezed until cracks appeared, along with a wail and a multitude of screams that flooded into his auditory nerves from the music box, as if tens of thousands of souls were trapped inside.
Ren squeezed his eyes shut, as if he had been transported to another place, a place with only screams and sorrow, resentment, and… guilt.
There he saw a pink-haired young woman, looking at him with a surprised expression, before giving him a gentle smile.
Ren didn't understand the meaning of that smile… but to free those souls from their suffering, he used all the power of the souls as energy to set them free.
"I Will Have Order."
A giant rock appeared in the sky above, before plummeting towards Lungmen like a giant meteor about to hit the earth.
Its size was larger than ever before, creating immense pressure on the red-cloaked men.
Except for everyone who knew Ren well.
"Souls of the suffering… you are free."
With that, the rock that was falling from the sky shattered, turning into beautiful golden motes of light that spread across the evening sky, making the scene breathtakingly beautiful, and everyone in Lungmen saw it.
"…So beautiful."
"More, more!!"
"Damn it! I didn't get a picture in time!"
Excited shouts rose from the girls around.
But in the next moment, the music box in Ren's hand turned to dust, and his body collapsed from overexerting his power.
"Ren!!"
"Get an ambulance, quick!"
Amidst Texas's panicked shouts and Ch'en's call for an ambulance,
what Ren didn't understand was that he could still see the figure of the mysterious pink-haired woman appearing before him, still looking at him with a gentle smile.
"Thank you for helping us again, Ren."
'Who are you?'
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