At that moment, Anelli wore a bewildered expression, as if she had heard something entirely unexpected.
Mori, who had been cautiously observing her complexion, hesitantly continued.
"Before... the Captain told me to... do as I pleased, to do what I wanted."
"What I asked was what kind of repose you desire."
"Ah, repose is peace, after all."
So, what Mori was saying now was also about repose.
The form of repose that Mori wished for.
"Because the power of death is a force that liberates all things and leads them to rest."
Mori, who had been rambling, stealthily raised her eyes to look at Anelli.
"I... I like living as a successor, it's comfortable and..."
She wanted to be the successor of the Captain before her, Anelli, not the Captain of the past. Because Mori had so much she wanted to learn from Anelli.
She didn't think Anelli would be unable to grant the form of repose she desired.
Because she was the proxy of death, and Mori, as the proxy's successor, had been closer to that power than anyone else.
Anelli would surely grant the repose Mori wished for. So, Mori simply needed to ask for the repose she desired.
"Could I... stay as your successor, behind you, wherever you are...?"
The longer Anelli's silence lasted, the more restless Mori became.
Had she said something wrong? But the Captain had clearly told her.
Not to worry about duties or anything, and to do as she pleased...
Ah, duties.
Was that the problem? Mori realized belatedly.
The fact that Anelli might not need a successor after everything was over.
So she hastily added an explanation.
"S-successor or disciple, either is fine!"
Anelli's expression grew even stranger. Her twisted lips were pressed into an ambiguous line, impossible to tell whether she was smiling or crying.
Come to think of it, given Anelli's personality, it didn't seem likely she would take a disciple. Should she have approached it differently from the start? Perhaps she should have said she wanted to be a servant...
But Mori wasn't confident she could attend to Anelli better than that red-haired mage traveling with them.
That mage's main job was cooking, yet she could also use magic—wasn't she useful? However, Mori had no great talent for magic, let alone swordsmanship.
Mori's shoulders slumped further and further in dejection.
Meanwhile, Anelli, who had been speechless and merely moving her lips vacantly, finally let out a deflated laugh.
"Mori, come here."
"Y-yes!"
She approached Anelli with a stiff body. Anelli, still wearing that peculiar expression, quietly gazed at Mori's face, now closer.
"I would have regretted not seeing it."
"Huh?"
"Your face."
Mori looked at Anelli with a bewildered expression. As she tilted her head to meet her gaze, her curly bangs, barely obscuring her vision, poked her eyes.
Anelli gently swept aside Mori's bangs. In Mori's now clearer view, Anelli's smiling face came into sight.
"You asked me if I disliked seeing your face, didn't you?"
"Ah..."
She had... probably said something like that. So, perhaps it was not long after she met Anelli?
"Actually, at first, I considered setting you free."
"S-setting me free?"
As Mori's eyes widened, Anelli smiled with amusement in her eyes.
"Yes. If I had known you were this young and cute, I would have treated you more leniently."
"Uh, uh..."
"The repose you desire will be granted, Mori."
A green light flowed from the hand stroking Mori's fluffy hair. It warmly enveloped Mori's entire body.
It was a very familiar warmth. Unconsciously, Mori surrendered all her senses to the warm hand caressing her head.
The faint warmth that had enveloped him as he fell and was dying that day.
This warmth now was exactly the same as that.
'I see.'
So even back then, it was a fragment of the power the Captain had left behind that enveloped him as a final mercy.
And it is the same now.
"Th-the day we meet again..."
It probably won't be too long.
The last words were swallowed by the green light and could not be voiced.
But perhaps Anelli's answer would be affirmative, Mori vaguely guessed.
Because the last face she saw was so very gentle.
* * *
Along with the sensation of a tremendous power draining from my body, a severe dizziness struck my head.
Someone caught my staggering body. They seemed to be shouting something, but the ringing in my ears made it impossible to understand properly.
"Ugh..."
Something heavy seemed to be pressing on my chest, making it hard to breathe, suffocating. I hunched my upper body and opened my mouth wide, gasping for air.
It felt as if someone was forcibly blocking my breath. How hard did I try to breathe to somehow stabilize my breathing?
"Lady Anelli, Lady Anelli!"
My spinning vision returned to normal, and the ringing disappeared.
Finally, I straightened up, still clutching the fabric over my chest and panting.
"This is..."
A faint tremor was felt in the hand that had wielded the power. As I stared blankly at it, a strong force was felt on my arm.
It was Xenon, who had been supporting me all along. As I unconsciously tried to refuse the support, he exerted force, not letting go.
"Let's rest a while."
"...No, I'm fine now."
"But!"
"Really."
Even the faint tremor in my hand gradually subsided. I clenched my fist and looked up at Samuel.
He was close by, probably having approached to support me the moment I collapsed.
Having barely placated the fretful Xenon, who kept whispering to rest, I asked Samuel a question.
"You know, don't you?"
"Know what?"
"Why I keep collapsing like a straw doll."
This strange phenomenon started when I began granting repose to the Dullahans. So Samuel, once a knight of the Round Table, must also be connected.
As I expected, instead of saying he didn't know, Samuel remained silent with a somewhat pale complexion.
He stood vacantly, as if hesitating to speak, and just as I was about to press him, he slowly parted his lips.
"Because the granted power is almost entirely consumed."
"Almost entirely consumed?"
"Yes."
Samuel, glancing down slightly, continued in a somber voice.
"The power of death is not infinite, and from the beginning, you likely only possessed enough power to complete the final authority."
"And that includes the power to bestow upon the Dullahans, right?"
"Yes, that's correct. The knights of the Round Table were originally those who should have attained repose long ago."
"Originally, there were twelve knights of the Round Table, and I have granted repose to ten."
At my remark, Samuel flinched. I observed his expression closely.
"Unlike the past, two are missing. Then, ultimately, this matter remains incomplete, doesn't it?"
Samuel had no answer.
Could it be that he intends to hinder the realization of the final authority this time as well? Now, at this final stage?
As such suspicion arose, my expression naturally darkened. But before I could interrogate him, he offered an answer first.
"...That is correct. And the portion of power for one of the two has already been realized."
"Already realized?"
I had been recklessly using my power on plant-type monsters all the way to Veladia Castle, but...
As I recalled the past with a bitter expression, Samuel let out a soft sigh and spoke.
"Your resurrection."
"...What?"
"Your resurrection after being beheaded at the guillotine. That is the goddess's mercy and the power of death."
Unconsciously, I raised my hand to touch my neck.
The scar from being severed and reattached still remained on the nape of my neck—a trace of my past that I had been too preoccupied with various matters to notice.
"How many lives do you think you have lived since the failure of the final authority?"
Well... probably many. The era the Dullahans spoke of was, in reality, the primordial world.
Wasn't the current world the result of an imperfect success after struggling to gain independence from the gods?
Even considering Diaris, the first emperor of the empire, as a benchmark, it was a distant past.
"Do you know why the power of death has only now activated during these repeated reincarnations?"
"Because of Lilia."
Lilia. The woman who drove me to my death. As it turned out, she was the proxy of birth, a puppet faithfully following the thread of fate dictated by her god.
At the monastery, I heard a woman's voice. It was probably the goddess, who clearly told me that time, halted by the 'thread of fate,' would flow again.
"Because the puppet of birth appeared. For death to exist, there must be birth. The two powers must interlock to complete a single, whole life."
Samuel's words seemed clear yet ambiguous.
"In the past, you destroyed the statue at Febrin Monastery to liberate the knights and obtain the power of birth. The spool was a medium that concentrated the power of birth, so it was an appropriate choice."
"But I didn't destroy the spool this time."
Dasha said Lilia was the spool of birth. So, does that mean I have to wait until Lilia dies?
In any case, Lilia has been arrested for treason and will receive an execution date in a few days.
So, do I have to wait here in Veladia Castle until Lilia's execution is carried out?
Will the power of birth come to me even if I don't kill her myself?
My mind grew complicated with the sudden revelation. Shouldn't you have told me such important information sooner?
It seems Samuel was undoubtedly full of intent to hinder me.
"You need not worry about that. The circumstances of the past and present are different."
Can I really trust Samuel's words?
Once stirred, suspicion does not easily subside. But even if I distrusted him, there was nothing I could do about it now.
I was already at Veladia Castle and had granted repose to ten knights.
"So you're saying there won't be a problem due to that consumed power?"
"Yes. You have taken Sir Diaris's place."
That was a relief.
By now, my dizzy head had completely recovered, and I stood upright, free from Xenon's support.
With my mind clear, the question I needed to ask flowed out properly.
"Then what about your portion?"
Samuel closed his mouth again.
"What of your repose, Sir Samuel?"