Chapter 95

It was long, so I split it! (That's why there are two episodes updated at once)

Stars revolved above their heads. Both of their foreheads had turned bright red.

Cecilia, who quickly regained her composure, confirmed that there were no bruises on Zwey’s face.

(The bruises are really gone...)

Cecilia exhaled, got off Zwey’s stomach, and slumped to the ground.

It was a bit forceful, but it seemed to have worked.

"Ugh, I can't do this anymore. I'm so tired!"

Her muscles relaxed, and sweat poured out. After expelling all the air from her lungs, Zwey, who was lying next to her, said in a somewhat exasperated voice, "What are you doing?"

"Zwey"

"I guess I was acting strange, huh?"

"How do you feel?"

"...Terrible"

He got up and untied the ropes that had bound Cecilia’s arms. Her arms, which had been tied for hours, were red and swollen in places.

Zwey’s face contorted as he looked at Cecilia’s arms.

"What am I even doing? Getting angry over something like this and even trying to kill Cecilia. Ein must be worried, and everyone else too..."

Leaning against the wall, he hugged his knees and shrank.

"What should I do? I feel like dying now, more than before."

At his barely audible voice, Cecilia lightly tapped his head.

"Don’t say you want to die."

"Cecilia..."

"There are people in this world who die even when they don’t want to. And there are people who can’t live even when they want to!"

Zwey slowly looked up at Cecilia.

She lifted her cheek to encourage him.

"You were saved by your mother, and protected by Ein. So, you can’t just say you want to die. Everyone will be sad."

She leaned against Zwey, who was sitting next to her, and rested her head on his.

"If you ever feel like you need to vent, I’ll listen to you. But you shouldn’t say such things so easily, okay?"

"Okay"

"Promise?"

"...Alright"

When Zwey nodded, Cecilia smiled broadly.

He buried his face in his knees, his lips curling up in a somewhat troubled expression.

"By the way, it’s already dawn, isn’t it?"

"Is everyone looking for us?"

"They might be."

She had noticed halfway through that the sun was already in a decent position. It seemed they had woken up just before dawn, and the sun had started to rise quite quickly, but at the time, they had other things on their minds.

(I’m going to get scolded, I guess...)

Cecilia smiled wryly.

A considerable amount of time had passed since the two of them had disappeared. Everyone must have noticed by now that they were gone. They might even be worried and searching for them.

Besides, today was the main day of the Spirit Summoning Festival. Ideally, Cecilia should have been with Rin, reciting prayers as the sun rose, as that was her duty as a knight.

(Well, there are seven of us, so they should be managing... Wait?)

She felt like she had forgotten something important and looked up at the ceiling. After a moment of stiffness, her face turned pale, and she stood up abruptly.

"Trouble!"

"What’s wrong, Cecilia?"

"Rin! If we don’t do something, Rin might be in danger!"

Cecilia’s lips trembled.

What came to her mind was a certain statement by Grace.

"I remembered this when I heard the story. There’s a bad ending where the protagonist and Prince Janis meet at the Spirit Summoning Festival."

The condition for this route to occur was rare: "Despite being chosen as the substitute for the Spirit Summoning Festival, the protagonist’s affection level is not high enough to follow the normal route, and they are extremely disliked by a specific character." But upon reflection, this could apply to Rin.

And the branch was—

(I met Prince Janis!)

In the past, Cecilia had occasionally taken the protagonist’s place. It wasn’t certain that this would happen again, but the possibility was significant.

"Hey! Where are we? How far is it from Argaram?"

"Um, about two hours on foot?"

"Two hours!? That’s too long!"

If they were really heading towards the bad ending, there was no time to waste. In fact, even if they left immediately, it might already be too late. Two hours was far from enough.

"Do you want to go to Rin?"

Zwey asked her in a calm voice, seeing her anxiety.

When Cecilia nodded, he stood up.

"Alright. I’ll take you there right now."

"...What do you mean?"

Cecilia’s eyes widened as Zwey touched his Noble Phantasm.

"Our true ability isn’t ‘Sharing.’”

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