“Father! Mother! This woman is my beautiful bride to whom I will devote my entire life in love!”

“Ho ho, I want to scold you for being so frivolous in front of your parents, but since this is the result of your great efforts, I won’t say anything just for today. I’ve already spoken to the other bride candidates, so they might grumble behind our backs, but they won’t say anything more than that.”

“The new daughter-in-law’s beauty is truly lovely. And they say the reason she was targeted by the witch is because she was born with a special blessing? Knowing that the child born will surely become a great figure who will leave their name in history, I’m already looking forward to seeing my grandchild.”

“I will do my best to serve the prince so as not to bring shame to the count family’s name.”

“Yes, new daughter-in-law, ignore unnecessary outside talk and focus only on bearing an heir. And son, you’ll have to succeed my position soon, so prepare for that.”

“Father, isn’t that decision too early? You’re still in good health…”

“The movements in the west are not normal. The Lennart family, pushed out of the empire, is building a new power base. Their new lord, ‘Adelaide von Lennart’, is said to be an incredibly vicious and powerful warrior who destroyed a magic tower for revenge and even raised her sword against the imperial main family. It’s an opponent too much for this old man to handle, so it’s right that we too respond with new blood.”

“Indeed, I’ve heard much about the reputation of the Lion Duke’s bloodline. Since you say so, Father, I, too, will do my best.”

“There’s no need to confront them with swords unconditionally. If we can build a friendly relationship, that would be the best.”

“Hmm? What’s wrong, new daughter-in-law? Your complexion doesn’t look good.”

“Ah, no. It’s nothing. Haha.”

***

Around the time when Cinderella, realizing the identity of the person she had been using as a cleaning agent, was feeling cosmic horror-level fear.

“…So, you’re saying some woman calling herself Ozma handed over this letter?”

“Yes. How should I put it, she was a person with a very ominous aura?”

At Adelaide’s words, Dorothea’s eyes narrowed.

Sophia asked, “Is it someone you know?”

“I don’t know the name Ozma. Black hair and black eyes… Well, I’m not completely without a guess, but, hmm.”

She stared intently at the letter in her hand for a long time.

Seeing her deep in thought, the lion and scarecrow quietly waited for her, but there was one person—no, doll, who couldn’t do that.

Swish!

“Huh?”

While Dorothea was momentarily stunned by someone’s action of snatching the letter with skill rivaling a pickpocket. The Tin Knight held the letter high in the air and boldly declared.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ proclaims that this letter is mine, so now I can do whatever I want with it!]

Clang!

With Dorothea’s lightning-fast strike, about a third of the Tin Knight’s head was dented.

The lion standing nearby inwardly thought.

At this rate, she’ll soon be able to knock down any decent knight just with her staff.

“Give it back!?”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ claims that he really hates developments where people keep putting off obvious answers right in front of them!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ laments, saying if Dorothea is going to look at it, just look at it, and if not, then don’t, why is she hesitating so much!]

“I got it, so just give it back! You just can’t stand seeing people set the mood!”

Dorothea gritted her teeth and snatched the letter from the Tin Knight’s hand, and opened the letter before the Tin Knight could grumble again.

After confirming its contents, her face turned to bewilderment.

“What is this?”

What was written in the letter was not text.

There was just a small seed neatly wrapped in paper.

With no destination, no greeting, no sender or recipient written, it was questionable whether this could really be called an invitation.

“What kind of seed could it be?”

“I don’t know. I can feel some kind of unique energy from it, but—tsk.”

Even though it was a situation that anyone would find suspicious, Dorothea hesitated to simply throw away the seed while clicking her tongue.

Then at some point.

Suddenly, the seed bounced up with a pop and tried to jump towards Dorothea’s chest.

More precisely, it tried to jump.

Grab.

The Tin Knight, who reached out from the side and grasped the seed, immediately pressed his palms together as if praying.

And then, while drawing mana into his hands, he started rubbing them together with a terrifying momentum.

Fwoosh!

The seed, containing a mysterious energy, seemed to try to resist somehow by emitting power, but it was no match for the Tin Knight who was rubbing his hands as if starting a fire with twigs on a deserted island.

Soon, the seed crumbled into powder and scattered into the air.

The lion blinked blankly at the Tin Knight’s action, the scarecrow laughed while covering her mouth as if finding it amusing, and the witch’s mouth fell open.

And towards such companions, the Tin Knight gave a thumbs up.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says not to worry because he has eliminated the ominous sign!]

“What are you trying to do by eliminating that!?”

Dorothea swung her staff again, but unlike usual, the Tin Knight avoided it while saying.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ argues that it’s too naive to leave the culprit who attempted a sudden attack unchecked!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says to ignore messages like ‘it’s absurd to throw it away’ and throw away what needs to be thrown away!]

“Whether it was an attack or had some other purpose, anyway, if you’re going to punish, you shouldn’t just destroy the terminal but trace back to the root and smash the culprit!!”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ stops in shock, asking if that was the reason, not something like ‘I can’t do as I please because it’s an old acquaintance’s item’!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ expresses admiration from the bottom of his heart, saying this is indeed befitting of his contractor!]

Thud!

Leaving the Tin Knight beaten and sprawled on the floor, Dorothea heaved a deep sigh.

Then, she asked Adelaide, “Let me ask again, this Ozma person, was she wearing a beautiful dress? Not boyish clothes? And her way of speaking?”

“Oh, yes. It was a pretty black dress. There was no boyish feeling at all in her speech or behavior. Rather, she had an image like a princess from somewhere.”

“The one I know was more like a tomboy. But calling me Dorothy… Well, never mind. Anyway, we can’t use the invitation or whatever it was anymore. Let’s just go on our way as originally planned.”

Since Dorothea, the person in question, said so, the other companions had nothing to say either.

Dorothea took out the animal compass and summoned all the animals of the compass at once.

A shadow-colored snake, a navy mole, a verdant deer, and a golden lizard lingered around Dorothea.

The wine-colored goat stayed by Sophia’s side, and the orange lion by Adelaide’s side.

Two animals remained.

Only a silver horse and a sky-blue bird.

And those two animals began to move forward in the same direction without the slightest deviation.

The meaning of this was clear.

After all, the Shoes of Borealis that the silver horse was pointing to had long since become the possession of a certain person the party already knew.

“Has Miss Gale obtained another sacred treasure?”

At Adelaide’s murmur, Dorothea shrugged her shoulders.

“Who knows? Well, she probably wasn’t just sitting around doing nothing, so it’s possible.”

From the party’s perspective, this wasn’t such a bad thing.

It meant that without having to wander around here and there, if they just defeated Gale, they could get two sacred treasures at once.

Moreover, with Gale Elilaz as the opponent, there was no need to worry about the other party running away or plotting something.

However, there was one thing that bothered them.

“But when did this guy go east of us?”

The Tin Knight’s party was currently traveling within the kingdom.

And the kingdom was a nation at the eastern edge of the continent.

From where Dorothea’s party was, the only things further east were the kingdom’s capital and the wild mountain range beyond it, and that was where the two animals of the animal compass were pointing.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ expresses a positive outlook, saying, ‘Isn’t this good, since for the time being they’ll have to return all the sacred treasures to the kingdom once they’re collected anyway!’]

“What’s with the ‘for the time being’?”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says that in his opinion, the possibility of everything just ending after collecting the sacred treasures converges to zero!]

“…”

This time, Dorothea couldn’t deny the Tin Knight’s words.

Sacred treasures created in the heavenly realm using the remains left by the eight generals of the underground.

The sudden move of the Kingdom of Heaven, which had left the sacred treasures on earth for nearly a thousand years, now urging various nations to gather them in one place.

Traces of the underground that could be felt here and there, although not openly revealing their presence.

It was certain that something would break out, and the trigger would likely be the moment when the eight sacred treasures were gathered in one place.

“…Well, we’ll deal with that when the time comes. I have a graduation exam to pass, after all.”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ asks if honestly, Dorothea hasn’t been more than capable in terms of skill for a long time already!]

“My teacher probably sees it all the same. Anyway, let’s go.”

On the way, riding in the carriage.

The Tin Knight said to Dorothea:

[The ‘Tin Knight’ requests that since they’ll be idle on the way anyway, why not spill the story related to that letter satisfactorily!]

“Why are you so interested in other people’s past? What do you want to know for?”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says it’s fair to know Dorothea’s story too, since he knows Adel’s story and Sophia’s story!]

“What about you?”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ proudly puffs out his chest, saying it doesn’t matter for him because he blabbers all the time anyway.]

“Is that really something to be proud of, really? Haa…” Dorothea sighed briefly, then leaned back against the backrest and slightly raised her chin, staring blankly at the carriage ceiling.

When she realized that Adelaide and Sophia were also subtly listening, although they didn’t openly say so, Dorothea let out a small laugh.

“This is a story from when I first went down to a village where people lived, after becoming my teacher’s apprentice.”

***

https://ko-fi.com/genesisforsaken