Dawn seeps into the hollow of the tree. He noticed the change in how the light entered when he was in that ambiguous boundary where it was unclear whether he had been sleeping or awake. Through the gaps in the tree hollow where root cross-sections formed the ceiling, a whitish color descended bit by bit. The air felt drier than last night. Whether the miasmic smell had faded or his sense of smell had simply grown accustomed to it, he couldn't tell. slowly raised his body. His entire body felt heavy. More than heavy—each part of his body dutifully remembered what had happened last night. His shoulders were stiff. His palms stung. The impact from when the vessel shattered during his attempt at the tea ceremony still lingered beneath his skin. And the first thing that entered his field of vision was リリィ. She was sleeping with her back against the tree hollow's wall, her knees drawn up to her chest. Her pale green hair fell across her cheek, and her flower ornament was tilted slightly. Her deep green wings were folded at the center of her body, their scorched left edge catching the faint morning light. The problem was her hands. From her fingertips to just before her wrists, they were blackened. He understood it was the mark from when she had dragged him last night, when she touched the miasmic erosion of the ground. It wasn't a severe extent. But it was definitely there. While had been unconscious, リリィ had carried him to this tree hollow. That blackening was the proof of it. He searched for words of apology. He searched, but everything that came to mind felt too light. "Thank you" and "I'm sorry" both looked like different words in the face of that blackening. opened his mouth to speak, then closed it. When he shifted his gaze, ティオ was near the outer wall. In the dim light, he was drawing small measurement marks of tree-pattern magic on the inside of his arm. Concentric circles resembling tree rings were unfolding, faintly dyeing the caster's skin pale blue-white. realized that ティオ had been continuing to gather information without moving since nightfall, maintaining the same posture as when he had opened his notebook last night with barely a word. The old scar on his right eye floated in the morning light through the gaps in his purple-tinged silver hair. stood up quietly. He placed his hand against the wall, shifted his weight, and stepped forward. One step, quietly, trying not to step on the fragments of the shattered vessel from last night—but the next instant, the sole of his foot caught a small piece of pottery, and he lost his balance spectacularly. "Tch—" He caught himself against the wall, barely avoiding a fall. But there was a sound. A small clattering echoed through the tree hollow. リリィ's head snapped up. Her golden eyes were momentarily unfocused, then she looked at , and then surveyed the entire tree hollow. It wasn't so much that her eyes opened as if she had just woken—it was the way they opened when alertness activated first. "...Good morning." There was silence. リリィ looked at . Her golden eyes, still heavy with sleep, held him for a moment as he remained frozen in an awkward position with his hand against the wall. Then she let out a small laugh. "What are you doing?" She was laughing. Her voice was slightly hoarse, but she was laughing. removed his hand from the wall and made a bitter face. When he said, "I was trying to have a quiet morning, but I failed," リリィ laughed again. While laughing, she placed both her hands on her knees. Then, suddenly, her gaze dropped slightly. "Um," began. Last night. The vessel shattering. Not being able to do anything. リリィ dragging him here. That blackening. リリィ spoke first. "I'm just glad you came." Her voice was quiet. Not a consolation, but something like a confirmation. "Because I wasn't alone," she continued. It wasn't a confession or encouragement. It was the kind of words that carried a density as if something she had been carrying alone ever since that day she returned to Koke-no-sato by herself was finally being handed over to another person. held those words for a moment. He tried to respond, but couldn't find the right words. リリィ slowly moved both her hands behind her body. The motion was natural, but noticed it. She was placing her blackened fingertips somewhere out of sight. Whether she was trying not to worry him, whether she was embarrassed to be seen, or whether it was both, he couldn't judge. said nothing about the motion. He simply returned his gaze to リリィ's face. "...I'm glad I came too." After saying it, he felt a little embarrassed. But he didn't take it back. ティオ turned around. "If you're awake, I want you to hear this." He spoke matter-of-factly, without any change in emotion. He was completely skipping morning greetings and moving straight into reporting his analysis results. made eye contact with リリィ. リリィ gave a small shrug. That was all that was needed to understand. "Please." ティオ opened his notebook and showed the fragments of last night's vessel. The fragments had already been carefully collected and arranged beside the notebook. wondered when he had collected them, but knowing ティオ, it wouldn't be surprising if he had been working through the night. "I analyzed the magical residue from the fragments. The detected density exceeds the level of a high-level practitioner activating at full power." "...Which means?" "It wasn't a failure. The vessel simply couldn't withstand it." Silence fell. looked at his own palms. It wasn't anger or relief. There was a strange sensation of being suspended in mid-air. The words "it wasn't a failure" didn't immediately connect to the question "so it was a success?" The vessel had shattered. The technique hadn't worked. リリィ's hands had been blackened. Those were unchanging facts, and the information that "the density was high" alone wouldn't move those facts. And yet, something looked subtly different. It felt as if something within him had changed shape slightly. "...So it's amazing? Or bad?" He asked directly. ティオ paused for a moment. "...Both." Internally, gave a deep retort. That wasn't an answer. リリィ had a similar expression. ティオ either didn't notice or didn't care, returning his gaze to his notebook. put his hand in his pocket. He took out the ledger key—a key made of brass-like metal with a leaf design carved into the handle—and held it out to ティオ. "I'd like you to look at this," he said. ティオ's expression stopped for a moment. "Where did you obtain it?" "It was in the café. Since I can remember. I thought my father might be connected to it somehow." ティオ took the ledger key and examined it for a while. His cold silver odd-eyes narrowed. His differently-colored pupils carefully traced the design carved into the metal surface. "It's the mark of a ledger keeper." "A ledger keeper—" "Those who manage the rifts in the ledger and maintain the balance between the two worlds. There are records from about two hundred years ago on the Verde Nova side. It's said that no tradition remains on the modern Japan side, but—with this mark present, your father is not unrelated to that role." It was a quiet, but heavy statement. looked at the ledger key. The key that had been placed in the back of the café for so many years. The key that had touched every day without thinking since his father's disappearance. Now, in this moment, it was changing from a story of personal loss to something much larger. Before confusion could set in, a quiet sensation came—a piece fitting into a long-standing gap. リリィ opened her mouth. "Did you know about this, ティオ?" "To some extent. I was investigating whether there was a ledger keeper's stele in the third layer of Kurogane Cave. That's why I was trying to explore that cavern." リリィ fell silent. The expression of someone quietly absorbing a fact they didn't know. Surprise and the reason to suppress it mixed in the depths of her golden eyes. gripped the ledger key again. He decided to think about his father no further today. For now, there was the village. "So, do you have a strategy?" ティオ opened his notebook. "I have a hypothesis." As ティオ began to explain his analysis results, his voice changed slightly from his usual low tone. An intellectual excitement, so to speak—the kind of heat that inevitably leaks out from someone suppressing their emotions. "It's possible that the unnamed monster can only absorb power that has classification and a name." raised his eyebrows. "What do you mean?" "Tree-pattern magic has a system and technique names. That's why it was absorbed. But the power of a tea ceremony master—" ティオ paused for a beat. "—doesn't belong anywhere in existing magical classifications. It doesn't even have a fixed name. A paradox holds: there is no mouth to absorb something that hasn't been named." "It's merely a hypothesis," he added. But his tone became slightly forward-leaning at the "merely" part. noticed it. "The skeleton of the strategy is—I'll compress and restrain the unnamed monster with my tree-pattern magic. You apply your tea ceremony power to its core. リリィ will block the escape routes." With that, ティオ began drawing on the ground with a branch. Line after line. and リリィ watched intently at first. Five minutes later, both had completely given up on understanding. The ground was covered with a complex, interwoven schematic of tree-pattern marks. The first restraint mark, the second compression mark, the convergence path to the core, coordination points with リリィ's plant sensitivity—each had arrows and numerical values written in, forming one massive design blueprint as a whole. Every time ティオ said "this part is important," 's understanding receded further. "In other words," said. ティオ looked up. "I hit it, you stop it, and リリィ blocks the escape routes—is that right?" There was a long silence. ティオ looked at the design on the ground. Then at . Then back at the design. "...Roughly, yes." "You should have said that from the start." リリィ muttered quietly. ティオ responded immediately. "Accuracy would be lost." thought internally, "No, accuracy doesn't matter if people don't understand," but he stopped himself from saying it aloud. He could tell that ティオ genuinely believed that. However, as they continued confirming the strategy, an unavoidable problem surfaced. High-level marks would be necessary, ティオ said. The second compression mark was where the activation of a more complex mark than last night's technique would be the core of the strategy. In that moment, recalled the scene from the previous night. ティオ's hand had been trembling. The marks had been disrupted. The activation of the high-level mark had failed. "ティオ," called. ティオ looked up. "Your hand was trembling last night. During the battle." ティオ tried to say something. The words "no problem" began to take shape—but stopped. Last night's failure had blocked logical denial. The moment he said "no problem," the entire design on the ground would become a lie. ティオ himself understood that better than anyone. The words stopped midway, and ティオ looked at the ground. "...It's a matter of training." "I don't think so." ティオ looked up. His cold silver eyes met 's. didn't avert his gaze. Ever since meeting ティオ in the fourth chapter, he had been observing. ティオ's body movements changed only in the moment he tried to activate a high-level mark. His calm calculation was pulled by something else for just an instant. That trembling in his hands wasn't something training could fix. "My tea ceremony doesn't have a recipe." ティオ's expression changed slightly. "When I brew something with the Grimoire, I don't calculate. I move my hands while thinking about the person in front of me. That alone completes a cup. I don't even know why it's completed." "...Emotion only adds variables." His voice was low. It sounded less like a conviction he was stating and