Published: March 21, 2026
"...ha."
A short breath slipped from my mouth.
'What's with that face? I've never seen it before.'
He laughed in the form I remembered — a form that shouldn't exist in this world anymore.
A black panther beastman who should be dead.
My childhood friend, who was the most important person to me after my sister and had been elevated as a hero.
"...Ritter, is it?"
At the sight of him, nostalgia made me blurt it out.
But I immediately shook my head to deny the thought.
"No, that can't be. You should have died without me seeing you off."
Someone important I couldn't be with at the end.
If I remember correctly, at the time there had been a huge order and I had been cutting myself off from the mundane world; I only learned of Ritter's death two weeks after he died.
I deserved it — selfish and only able to think of myself, I was truly the worst.
I'm always too late.
I couldn't be there when my sister died, and I couldn't exchange final words with my childhood friend.
Always, something held me back somewhere and I couldn't move on.
'Big brother, you seem to have become so self-deprecating.'
A girl covered her mouth and chuckled politely.
That mannerism had been drilled into her for a long time by our strict mother.
"...Aria."
The girl with my sister's face in my memory smiled with the same expression, the same gestures as my sister.
That familiar expression tightened my chest with pain.
After my sister died, a baby was born in a village I happened to stop by.
I met her while I was wandering, seeking a place to die after my childhood friend and sister had died.
A woman who tried to keep that child alive even if it cost her own life.
A beautiful, pregnant woman who called herself Lilia.
I felt attracted to her at first sight, but she died at childbirth, and I — who had gone to gather mountain vegetables — was once again too late.
I gave the newborn a name using the common "ria" found in female names I acknowledged: "Aria," "Lilia," "Amelia."
To be honest, maybe I wanted "Ria" to be "Aria," to raise her in place of my dead sister.
Well, even if that was the case, such a wild tomboy couldn't possibly be the same as my sister.
"I... I have no face to show you..."
I still don't understand the principle that brought them here, but I couldn't possibly mistake my real sister.
Before that familiar sister, I involuntarily slipped back into the old first-person way of speaking.
Aria merely chuckled at my behavior.
'Hey hey, young lady, this guy was always so self-deprecating, you know?'
A faintly translucent Ritter placed his hand on Aria's shoulder and teased.
Looking closely, Aria was translucent too.
Behind me, Tsuda gave an alarmed sound: "A ghost!?"
It was probably something close to that.
"I see, a type of spirit summoning technique, a magical tool that calls a soul close to the bonds of the person who put magical power into it..."
Whoever made such a complicated magical artifact.
Even I now couldn't make or repair something like this.
I dusted off the magical tool Tomoya Tsuda had touched and sighed.
My childhood friend's skill at generating magical artifacts had always been far above the rest.
And he could wield them as the finest tools.
That's exactly how he ended up becoming called a hero.
'Correct. The one who touched it directly probably has no deceased acquaintances he met in life since gaining awareness.'
Ritter smiled with satisfaction as he looked at me.
Seeing that kind face made the back of my nose ache as if stung.
"I originally prepared this assuming I'd touch it," he said.
I haven't been here for many years, so I don't remember the exact state of this room, but I know this magical tool wasn't here before.
"This was a place where I kept various tools. I made it so you'd feel something off when you came here, I suppose? I imagine it was placed after I returned from the Demon King's Castle."
As ever, he was ridiculously thorough.
While I sighed, Ritter's gaze wandered away from me.
It dropped and stopped at a certain point.
'By the way, is that the rumored black cat over there?'