The carriage rolled smoothly along the road through the darkness of the night.
The forest was so dense that even the moonlight could not penetrate it. No matter how hard one peered out the window, nothing could be made out.
That should have been true for the coachman on his seat and the horses pulling the carriage as well.
Yet they made their way steadily along the forest path, as though they had traveled it many times before.
At the beginning of the journey, Sarah had sat close to the window, struggling to open the door and escape. But once the carriage picked up speed, she had no choice but to abandon the attempt.
Even if she managed to open the door now, escape was impossible. Jumping from a carriage moving this fast would break her neck at the very least.
If only my magical circuits were intact…
Once a black mage who had dominated an entire era, Sarah felt thoroughly disheartened by the fact that she could not even escape from a carriage.
Having resigned herself to staying put, she quietly moved to the innermost seat.
“This is ridiculously uncomfortable.”
No sooner had she settled down than the discomfort she had felt in her eyes earlier grew worse.
Come to think of it, she had seen some strange scenes before.
Recalling the bizarre phenomenon, Sarah touched her eyes with a troubled expression.
She had a suspicion. It was probably because of those fragments, or whatever they were, that the god had driven directly into her eyes.
If a fragment allowed its bearer to see the course of a person's life simply by looking at them, there was only one thing in the world it could be.
“The Star's Fragment…”
Piecing together what had happened, Sarah murmured the name of the most sacred relic she knew.
The brightest star born of Ion, the supreme god. According to legend, when a person was reflected in one of its fragments, it revealed their past, present, and the fate awaiting them in the future.
“…Then were those lumps earlier also because of the fragment?”
Thinking of Enoch, Sarah recalled the black lumps she had seen on his subordinates' shoulders.
She had never encountered anything like them, either in appearance or in the strange presence they gave off. Neither Enoch nor his men had seemed to pay them any attention.
Am I the only one who can see them?
With that thought, Sarah sank back against the carriage seat.
The realization that a relic so precious it had only ever appeared in legends was now embedded in her eyes drew a hollow laugh from her.
Her mission really must be important.
Even though she could no longer use black magic properly, the god had entrusted the Star's Fragment to none other than Sarah Rosenbaum.
What if someone steals it?
…Well, it's embedded in my eyes. It's not as though I can take it out and hide it somewhere else.
“……”
The more she thought about it, the more uneasy she became.
It will guide you to where you must go.
As one thought led to another, remembering the relic brought back a vivid recollection of the circumstances in which the god had forced it upon her.
Sarah murmured into the pitch-black darkness, addressing the heavens hidden beyond it.
“…But what's all this nonsense about Enoch Soser? Enoch Soser, of all people.”
If she had known this was where she was supposed to go, she would have put up at least some resistance.
Sinner or not, how could the god send her straight to the man who had ended her life without so much as a warning?
“What am I supposed to do if that bastard recognizes me…?”
Muttering resentfully, Sarah rested her head wearily against the window.
And then she imagined it.
What if Enoch Soser discovered that the black mage he had killed had returned to life?
“……”
…That headless corpse I just saw couldn't possibly be a sign of what's going to happen to me, could it?
Sarah hastily cut off that line of thought and forced herself to consider something else.
First, she needed to work out why the god had specifically sent her here.
Her task was clear enough, so blending in with the group and gathering information did not seem like a bad idea.
Perhaps she might even manage to change someone's fate along the way.
Yes. For now, I just have to endure.
Just as Sarah finally reached that decision—
Bang!
The carriage, which had been traveling smoothly, suddenly jolted violently, and the door flew open.
It had not slowed down in the slightest, and a fierce gust of wind swept into the previously quiet interior.
“Ahh! Damn it, that scared me!”
Sarah cursed instinctively and shot a furious glare toward the door.
“Oh, there's already someone in here.”
The culprit behind the commotion was a slender young man.
His face was difficult to make out in the faint moonlight filtering through the forest, but his golden hair, whipping about in the fierce wind, was unmistakable.
For a fleeting instant, a vision of a snowstorm sweeping across a frozen plain appeared above that golden hair.
Then it vanished.
Sarah noticed a black aura clinging to the young man's back like smoke.
Unlike the lumps she had seen earlier, however, this one had no distinct shape.
It merely hovered indistinctly around the back of his neck, like a wisp of smoke.
“Why is there a woman in here?”
Despite his bizarre and disorderly entrance, the young man tilted his head and regarded Sarah suspiciously, even though she was simply sitting quietly in the carriage.
“Dillus, who's this woman?”
He leaned back toward the driver's seat to ask about her identity.
Through the rushing wind came the coachman's shouted reply.
“The captain's slave!”
Having answered, the coachman called back with a question of his own.
“Snow, why are you getting on now?”
The young man, whom he had called Snow, replied cheerfully to the familiar coachman.
“I forgot to feed the cat!”
It was a trivial reason, but the coachman apparently found it amusing and burst into hearty laughter.
As the laughter continued, Snow finally climbed all the way into the carriage and shut the door.
Despite the abundance of empty seats, he deliberately chose the one directly opposite Sarah.
“Sorry. I must've startled you, huh? I didn't mean to. I had to get on in a hurry.”
Perhaps because the coachman had confirmed her identity, Snow, who had initially regarded her with obvious suspicion, now spoke to her with surprising ease.
“That way you talk surprised me, though. You sound like some back-alley thug. Why is a slave so rude?”
What's wrong with this guild? Did they all agree to speak pleasantly while saying the rudest things imaginable?
The moment he learned she was a slave, Snow had started criticizing her manner of speaking. Sarah responded awkwardly.
“Oh, I'm sorry…”
She appeared suitably subdued on the outside, but inwardly, she had only one thought.
Where does this brat get off speaking to me so casually?
Perhaps sensing that she was less than pleased by his company, Snow fell silent for a while.
Instead, he stared at her so intently that it became uncomfortable, although he could hardly see much in the darkness.
“What are you staring at me for?”
“Because you're fascinating.”
Unable to endure his scrutiny any longer, Sarah snapped at him, hoping he would stop staring. Snow, however, took it as an invitation to talk and answered with a bright smile.
“Are you really the captain's slave? You know, Enoch Soser, the captain of the Cygnus Guild.”
“…Why are you so curious?”
“You're definitely not the captain's type. He absolutely despises immunes…”
Snow's eyes sparkled with curiosity as he smiled and examined Sarah more closely.
He must have had excellent eyesight. Even in this darkness, he had managed to notice the color of her eyes.
“How did you seduce him?”
Seduced?
That was hardly the right word.
For a moment, Sarah was speechless at Snow's assumption that she must have been the one to seduce Enoch.
She was the slave, and Enoch was the master. Why had it never occurred to him that the master might simply have abducted her?
Swallowing her questions, Sarah decided against explaining. Instead, she merely repeated the facts.
“With my body.”
“Your body…?!”
Snow reacted with extraordinary shock.
His eyes widened, and he murmured in a tone of amazement.
“He already has so many lovers, and yet his stamina is incredible.”
“Stamina…?”
They were sitting too close together for Sarah to pretend she had not heard him. She wondered why he had suddenly brought up such a subject.
“Wha—wait! What kind of nonsense are you spouting?!”
The suggestive implication she had initially missed finally dawned on her, and she snapped at him in outrage.
To think he'd put me and Enoch Soser in that kind of relationship! He must be insane!
“Shh. Hold on.”
Snow hurriedly covered her mouth and seized the back of her neck, forcing her to duck.
Hey! What do you think you're doing while I'm talking?!
Just as an enraged Sarah twisted her body in protest, the carriage jolted violently.
Had she remained seated upright, her head would have struck the ceiling.
What followed was utter chaos.
After that first violent jolt, the carriage continued to rattle and lurch for some time.
It sounded as though they were traveling along a path no carriage was ever meant to take.
Then the violent shaking, which had rattled her to the very skull, stopped so abruptly that it was almost difficult to believe it had happened.
Apparently, the carriage had passed through some unfamiliar stretch of terrain and returned to a smooth road.
Perhaps they had emerged from the forest during the commotion, because moonlight now streamed into the carriage, illuminating the interior almost as brightly as day.
“Were you scared? The entrance to Rowd is usually rough.”
Snow released Sarah and spoke with a cheerful, teasing smile.
Rowd.
The familiar place name immediately caught Sarah's attention.
If she remembered correctly, Rowd was a grassland region at the southernmost end of the Soser Empire.
Blessed with a mild climate throughout the year, it was a popular sightseeing destination, renowned for its lush greenery, sweeping plains, and fields of brilliantly blooming flowers.
The Rowd region had only one city, built without disturbing the surrounding natural scenery. Foreign architects frequently visited to study its design.
Even Sarah had visited the region many times in her younger years.
Now that she knew where she was, long-forgotten memories began to resurface.
A place she had not once missed during her three hundred years in hell.
“The road's rough, but the view is great. Want to have a look?”
Sitting beside the window, Snow made the suggestion cheerfully.
Even when she had been alive, Sarah had never been the sort to find peace of mind in admiring scenery. This time, however, the suggestion did not seem so bad.
“Sure, why not.”
Sarah gave a faint nod and leaned toward the window, almost as though she were doing so reluctantly.
Her eyes, brightened by a trace of anticipation, glimmered in the moonlight.
Remembering the Rowd she had known, she turned to look outside, expecting vast plains stretching toward the horizon, majestic mountain ranges, and fields overflowing with flowers.
“……?!”
She had been anticipating a beautiful, romantic night view.
Instead, the sight that greeted her left Sarah utterly stunned.
The Rowd revealed beneath the moonlight was completely different from the place she remembered.
There were no vast open plains, no majestic mountain ranges, and no fields of blooming flowers.
No, that wasn't quite right.
They were still there.
But they were no longer the only things to be seen.
“What is that…?”
Pressing a hand against the window, Sarah pointed toward the pitch-black shapes obstructing her view and asked.