Midnight.
As her family slumbered, and the dragon’s massive form emitted surprisingly gentle breaths, Viole slipped out of her bedding.
With a bottle of alcohol tucked under her arm, she walked through the darkness with sure steps and eventually emerged onto a small hill—the resting place of her old friends.
She took a deep breath of the cool night air, gazed up at the moon, then lowered herself in front of the graves. Just then, she sensed a presence behind her.
「Karen?」
「Hmm. I noticed you were up… Should I not be here？」
「Don’t be silly. Come here.」
Viole smiled and beckoned her beloved adopted daughter. Karen stepped out of the shadows, walked over, and crouched by her side.
They sat in silence for a while, facing the two gravestones. Seated behind them, they looked out over the hill’s gentle slope.
Karen finally spoke, her voice soft.
「Are you afraid… of the battle with the Demon King, Viole-sama？」
Viole placed a gentle hand on Karen’s head, stroking her hair as she replied.
「Maybe, in the past, I wouldn’t have been.」
「The past？」
「Yes. Back then, I lived a shattered life. I believed I was stronger than anyone else, and no matter what monsters I faced, I never felt fear. Or perhaps… I didn’t know what fear was.」
More accurately, she hadn’t forgotten fear—she had buried it.
Because when she was a child, trapped in Mucare’s estate, she had spent every day in terror. The contemptuous gaze of her parents—that feeling had been unmistakably fear.
But after gaining power, leaving that estate, and becoming an adventurer…
Her confidence in her magic had driven that fear deep into the recesses of her mind. She had ignored it, thinking it was an emotion that didn’t suit someone who prided themselves on strength.
「Then now… it’s different？」
「When I found Chocola. When Luis and Exea died. When I took you in my arms. When I gave birth to Sui-kun. And… when his father, Sui-kun, and Chocola were teleported away.」
Her fingers, which had been gently stroking, stiffened.
She realized her hands were trembling.
「In my reckless life, I found things I cared about. No matter how strong I was, I realized there were things I couldn’t do. I couldn’t protect everything I held dear, and they slipped away from my grasp. That’s when I understood. This is fear. This is what it means to be afraid.」
The fear she once felt toward her parents in childhood was different—both in its source and its expression.
But by learning to love others and accepting that she wasn’t invincible, she could no longer ignore the fear she had long suppressed.
Karen listened to her adoptive mother’s words in silence.
Finally, she placed a gentle hand on Viole’s back and spoke.
「Viole-sama, I’m scared too. But maybe… that means we’re strong.」
「…Scared, but strong？」
「Hmm.」
Her gaze turned to the gravestones where her birth parents rested.
「We have people we want to protect, and we don’t want to lose them. That’s why fighting is scary. My real mother and father must have been scared during the ‘Great Outbreak’ too… because I was there as a baby.」
Viole’s body tensed as the memory returned.
She and Kazuteru hadn’t made it in time.
They thought no one in the world could match them. They believed they were invincible. Yet in the chaos of fleeing crowds and sealed-off walls—in the face of such trivial obstacles—they had failed.
But more than the helplessness or regret, what she remembered most was the image of her friends’ final moments.
Luis, who died shielding his wife and child. Exea, mortally wounded, cradling her beloved child in protection.
「My father and mother died protecting me… They protected me. They were strong enough to protect me. And maybe… it’s because they were scared. Because they were scared, they were strong.」
The mutants that had attacked were slaughtered. The two had shown more determination than their abilities should have allowed, protecting Karen with their lives.
When Viole and the others finally arrived, Exea, on the brink of death, smiled one last time.
She smiled, and with a look of relief, she spoke.
——Please, take care of her.
Please, make her happy——.
「…You’re right, Karen.」
Ah.
That final plea was strength itself.
Because she had entrusted her life’s purpose to the strongest witch in the world.
Then Viole, too, had to be strong.
She could not let her friend’s strength be in vain.
「I’m afraid. I’m afraid to face the unknown existence that is the Demon King. I’m afraid of losing the things I hold dear. But if that’s the case… then this fear becomes a source of strength, doesn’t it？」
「Hmm… I’m scared too.」
「Sui-kun, Chocola, Ji Liz, and Alice-san—they must all be scared too.」
Everyone had something precious.
Everyone carried their fear (strength) into battle.
Viole pulled her beloved adopted daughter into an embrace, holding fast to the promise entrusted by her old friends.
Uncorking the alcohol, she gently placed the bottle before the gravestones.
Together, they gazed up at the night sky.
「And you know, Viole-sama, we’re already strong enough. Because we’ve faced so many fears. Thirteen years ago, we learned what it means to lose.」
「You’re right. From that day, until Sui-kun and Chocola returned… you and I worked so hard, just the two of us.」
Never let that despair happen again.
Never forget those desperate thirteen years of fumbling through darkness for a thread of hope.
And take pride in the countless trials overcome—
「Now, it’s not just you and me anymore. Sui-kun and Chocola are here, Alice-san and the others too. Even Ji Liz is helping.」
「Hmm. We’re unstoppable. Everyone knows the fear of loss. That’s why we’re strong. We won’t lose.」
Luis, Exea, and Kazuteru.
Precious people who slipped from their grasp—yet they, too, had feared loss, and thus, they had been strong. Because they were strong and had protected them, their family was here now.
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