The light of dawn filtered through the cracks in the rock wall. Thin orange rays reached deep into the cave. Setsuna opened her eyes. She was in Shuna's arms. Pale violet hair brushed against her cheek. It was warm. How much she had cried last night—when she tried to remember, pain shot through her throat again. But no tears came. There was nothing left to shed. The sealed letter lay on her chest. Where a piece of mud had flaked away, that single line was visible. —I'm glad Setsuna lived. Setsuna slowly pushed herself up. Shuna's arm moved as if to hold her back. But she was asleep. There was a presence at the cave entrance. Raika stood with his back against the rock wall. Eyes open while leaning there. His arm wrapped in bandages. The wound at his side. She understood immediately—he had been standing there all night. A water canteen sat on a rock a short distance away. She didn't know who had placed it, but the way it was positioned told her—Kei had set it down somewhere in the darkness, without a word. Setsuna took one step out of the cave. The early autumn morning air entered her lungs, cold and sharp. Swollen eyelids. Dry cheeks. Something that had vanished somewhere three months ago—thinly, faintly, she felt it returning to her. Shuna appeared at the cave entrance. Silver eyes looked at Setsuna's face. As if confirming something, but saying nothing. She picked up the water canteen and held it out to Setsuna. Setsuna accepted it with both hands. "[gentle]Thank you very much," Her voice was small. But it was certain. Something quiet passed between the three of them. Raika pushed himself away from the rock wall and stepped forward. He tried to say something—but couldn't. That was fine, his expression said. From behind the rocks, Kei appeared. Heterochromatic eyes—one gold, one silver—looked at Setsuna. The small habit of a smile at the corner of his mouth wavered slightly this morning. He quietly lowered his gaze. That single word, falling between the four of them—it was the first time since the great war that Setsuna had voluntarily expressed gratitude to anyone. ＊ The four moved to a flat rocky area by the lakeside. Early autumn morning light spread across the surface of Jura Lake. In the distance, a lizardman fishing boat moved quietly. The sound of nets being drawn mixed with the water's murmur. The daily life of Tempest—the landscape Setsuna had been watching from far away for three months—felt slightly closer this morning. Shuna sat beside Setsuna. Raika settled onto a rock a little distance away. Kei stood with the lake at his back. A long silence continued. The water surface swayed in the morning light. It was within that silence that Setsuna opened her mouth. "[gentle]...I first met my best friend at the training grounds," Once she began, she couldn't stop. She spoke the name. It was the first time saying it aloud. The day they first met—how that person had laughed and helped Setsuna up when she fell covered in mud. Memories of fighting together. Memories of laughing through the night. And then—the final night of the great war. Comrades fell one after another. She called out their names. There was no answer. In the darkness, she couldn't tell whose voice was whose anymore. The last back of her best friend she saw—they never turned around. Whether there was no time to turn, or whether they couldn't turn, she still didn't know. Her voice caught several times. The fist on her knee trembled. Her fingers gripping the sealed letter turned white. "[sad]I couldn't forgive myself for being the only one who survived—I still don't know if I've forgiven myself. That's why I kept digging for remains. Whether that was atonement or a memorial—I still don't know," The three said nothing. Shuna remained motionless with her eyes closed. Raika sat on the rock looking down, continuing to listen. Kei kept his gaze on the lake surface, breathing quietly. After Setsuna's confession ended, silence fell on the rocky area. It was different from the silence before—the silence where no one could say anything. This was the stillness after acceptance. ＊ Raika was the first to speak. There was no deliberation in his manner. He simply looked at Setsuna once, then lowered his gaze. "[serious]I'm not good with words," He paused slightly after saying just that. "[serious]But I want to be beside you. When you cry—I want to be beside you. That's all," There was no decoration. No excuse. Just those words. Shuna's lips tightened for just a moment. Kei stepped away from the rock wall. He approached Setsuna with a slightly unsteady stance, as if consciously shedding his bearing as a diplomat. "[serious]Meeting you—I found the meaning of coming to this country," His heterochromatic eyes looked straight at Setsuna. "[serious]Without you, I would have been nothing but a bureaucrat pushing papers. That much is certain," The emotion he had been holding back with reason took form for the first time in this morning light and emerged. Shuna rose quietly to her feet. Her voice was a different dimension from the words she had spoken in the cave last night. "[whispers]I'm a selfish woman," Her voice trembled. She held back tears. But she couldn't stop the trembling. "[whispers]I don't want to give you to anyone—but more than that, if you can smile, that's enough for me," She was aware of her possessiveness. Yet she couldn't stop it. She voiced that duality as it was. Three confessions overlapped on the morning rocky area. Setsuna was overwhelmed. Words for Raika. Words for Kei. A response to Shuna—nothing came. Nothing could come. But—Setsuna understood. There was a certain warmth deep in her chest. Not an answer. But something that hadn't been there for three months. The tension of Shuna and Raika hearing each other's confessions in the same place still lingered in the air of the rocky area. Kei, reading the lines of emotion running between the three with a diplomat's eye, still didn't take back his own words. The lake surface swayed quietly in the light. ＊ They returned to the city as the sun began to decline. The smell of evening meals drifted from the stalls of Jura Marche. The fragrant smoke of grilled freshwater fish from Jura Lake. Tempest's dusk always carried this scent. When Setsuna turned toward the Memorial Management Bureau's building, the door burst open. Galf emerged. The bureaucratic goblin director pushed his glasses up repeatedly—his face was blue. Not his complexion, but tension radiating through his entire body. The sleeves of his usually meticulously arranged clothes were disheveled. "[scared]Setsuna—I'm so glad you came," His voice was strained. "[scared]A team was ambushed in the outer fringe zone of the southern scorched earth. By a small squad of Valgrim remnants—the surviving forces of the mercenary group hired as the vanguard of the demon lord's army during the great war," Setsuna's feet stopped. "[sad]Recovery officer Haruk has a broken arm. Recovery officer Nami took a severe blow to the head and...hasn't regained consciousness," His glasses trembled slightly. There was a beat before Galf spoke his next words. "[serious]And—all the remains being transported that day were stolen. The cloth bags containing keepsakes scheduled to be returned to families at next weekend's memorial return ceremony—over a dozen of them...completely gone," Expression drained from Setsuna's face. Not the expressionless face of three months of killed emotion. A different kind—a face where something had hardened. The memorial return ceremony. Every weekend in the central plaza, recovery officers read the names of the deceased and hand over the remains to their families. Setsuna had spent three months watching the faces of families in that moment. People who wept. People who nodded. People who couldn't make a sound. Those keepsakes—things that were supposed to reach families' hands next week. The final words of the dead, being converted to money. "[serious]I'm going to recover them," She stated it shortly and clearly. Galf opened his mouth to say "It's dangerous, we don't even know the exact scale of the remnants or the precise location of their camp—" but Setsuna had already turned away. The moment she stepped outside the building, a voice followed. "[serious]I'm going too," Raika said it immediately. There was no hesitation. "[serious]I can provide barrier magic support," Shuna followed. Kei paused slightly before speaking—but spoke with certainty. "[serious]I have cards I can use in negotiations with the remnants. As a diplomat," Four people, each with their own motivation, were facing the same direction. Carrying tangled romantic feelings. Without answers. But—in this moment, the four were looking toward one thing. Wind blew through the twilight of Tempest. The memorial monument construction site was visible in the distance. Black obsidian pillars with scaffolding still remaining. Until next weekend's memorial return ceremony—time was not abundant.