Upon arriving at the destination, I could see many Lithuvars gathering around Alo and making a fuss.
Alo is currently lying on the ground, while her face, stomach, arms, and other parts of her body have their flesh scraped off of them.
She may be regenerating, but the healing speed is slow, probably due to the lack of MP.

The surrounding ground is littered with craters, and several trees have fallen, indicating that there must’ve been a fierce battle that took place here.
A charred corpse of someone who might be from the “Hungry Hunters”, and several burnt Trell Raton bodies are found nearby.

Going back to Alo, a Lithuvar spear is seen pierced through her shoulder.
The spear penetrates into the earth, pinning Alo in place.

“What do you think you’re doing?! I told you to stop!”

“Why’d you stop me?! Can’t you see that thing’s a monster! And besides, look! When it grabbed Gran’s foot, he suddenly lost his energy and couldn’t even stand right! It must have been this creature’s handiwork!”

“Have you gone mad?!”

The Lithuvar man who pierced Alo’s shoulder is arguing with another Lithuvar.
Both of them are gripping at each other and quarreling.

“Just cut it to pieces now! Or else, that undead will bring a terrible disaster to us all!”

An old Lithuvar woman with a cane said, shouting loudly with her face all red.
Then, when the old woman ran out of breath and tried to pull herself together, she noticed me, approached me with tears flowing out of her cheeks, and grovelled in place.

“Oh great Dragon God! Expel the evil that lies before us and protect us with your might!”

You guys, even I don’t know what I should really do, and I’m having an internal panic here.
I can’t quite process the scene that’s happening in front of me. [T.N: Irushia.exe is not responding]

During that moment, I met eyes with Alo.
Alo’s chin has been shaved off of her face, and it looks like something struck her forehead.
Despite the deformed mouth, she gives me a sad smile and tries to speak.

“I’m satisfied”, is what she tried to say.
But, even after saying that, I can still tell that the lingering regret she has still hasn’t been fulfilled yet just by looking at her eyes.
She understands my situation clearly and is only satisfied about dying if it means clearing my name.

“Gru~uooooo!”

Before I could even think, I instinctively let out a loud〖Roar〗.
Every Lithuvar present shut their mouths and gathered together.
I know I did it instinctively, but with this, I can finally think in peace.

The one thing I feared the most has happened.
Alo, who has been desperately trying to regain her humanity up to this point, has now been discovered by the Lithuvar Tribe in her disheveled form.
Alo can already speak fluently now.
I thought I could show her to the tribe by letting her blend in at first, but thinking about it now, that’s just my naivety talking.

It was doomed to fail from the very start.

I feel like everything I’ve done for Alo, everything I’ve given to her, has only caused her misfortune which led to this.

For now, I gently grab the spear with my mouth, being careful of not accidentally biting it off, and pull it out of Alo’s shoulder.
Alo hesitates at first, but she then touches my face.
Light glows from her hand and I can feel a small amount of my MP being drained from me.
Alo’s regeneration then begins to speed up.

“R-Ryujin-sama…… why……”

While the Lithuvar Tribe were watching, stunned, Alo stands back up.
Then, she points her arm at the ground.

“……〖Gale〗”

The dirt and soil around Alo’s feet disperses and creates a dust cloud.
Well, I surely didn’t expect that.
I wondered why Alo was gathering magic in her hands, at first I thought she was gonna attack, but instead, she just wanted a smokescreen for a slick getaway.

Seeing her chance, Alo runs around the gathered Lithuvar Tribe and escapes deep into the forest.

“W-What is that?!”

One of the Lithuvar Tribe exclaimed.
There are currently a dozen rabbit-like creatures made of earth hopping about.
It’s Alo’s skill,〖Earth Doll〗.
Seems like she scattered them around so they wouldn’t follow after her.

“It’s a family of undeads! We need to break them apart and seal them away with a ceremony! Call the lady shrine maiden! Shrine maiden! Where is that traitor, Bella, at now?!”

In the midst of the confusion, a woman who is being held down by another Lithuvar shakes off the man restraining her and runs after Alo.
I finally realized who Alo was looking at.

“I’m sorry”

“U~ guh!”

At the same time, another man, who is also being restrained, seizes the chance created by the〖Earth Doll〗rabbits and elbows the Lithuvar holding him in place, also running after Alo.
They’re Alo’s parents, Aino and Tatarc.

“You idiots! That’s not your daughter anymore! It’s a monster now!”

Another man catches Aino and pulls her back.
But then, Tatarc hits him in the face and grabs her hand.

“Aino! This way!”

“N-Now you’ve done it! Someone, stop those two! They’ll get killed!”

After the elbow strike, the old Lithuvar woman who’s lying on the ground points a finger at Tatarc’s back.

“Now’s not the time for that! We have to hurry and kill that family of undead! R-Ryujin-sama! Ryujin-sama!”

The old woman was surrounded by three earth rabbits while shouting spit at the two parents who ran off.
It’s a rabbit that Alo made. I don’t think it will hurt any of the Lithuvar Tribe at all.
After taking one last glance at the fussy Lithuvars, I followed Aino and Tatarc who went after Alo.

To think that I caused yet another uproar in the Lithuvar Tribe before my departure.

Alo is seen standing, with the river behind her.
She faces her two parents who’ve caught up to her.
Alo’s body is still tattered in some places, but she’s recovering at a considerable rate now.
At least none of her bones are exposed.

“Alo! You’re Alo…… aren’t you? Please, answer us back!”

Alo was hiding her eyes with her hair, but when Aino called out to her, she raises her head and reveals her red eyes.

“…… Daddy, mommy”

Alo says in a soft tone.
Those few words made Aino and Tatarc, who were desperately calling out to her, close their mouths and listen to what their beloved daughter is about to say.

“…… Ever since the day I was chosen to be a sacrifice…… both of you have been arguing with the Dragon God’s shrine maiden for a long time…… I was worried that daddy would leave mommy behind and join the other village. Daddy, you hated the lady shrine maiden for doing that to me and ended up going to the other village, didn’t you?”

Tatarc couldn’t find the words to respond and just faced down.
So, Tatarc did hate the village’s system of offering sacrifices and was left to go join the anti-Ryujin village.

“But…… now that the monster is gone, and the village has reunited into one…… it makes me happy that daddy and mommy are back together again just to look for me. I…… don’t want you to leave each other again”

“We won’t, we promise! We will never make you feel worried again!”

“That’s why, Alo, come back to us……”

Aino calls out Alo’s name and lends her an open hand.
Alo picks up her hand and holds it gently before shaking her head and retracting her hand away.

“I…… I can’t stay here anymore…… Bye-bye, daddy, mommy. I love you”

Alo faces down and takes a step back. Then, a breeze blows by.

The wind blows up the dirt and soil from the earth and covers Alo in a small sandstorm.
In the next instant that it clears up, Alo was no more.
Instead, something white falls on the ground where Alo stood.
They look like fragments of Alo’s bones.
Tatarc picks them up and hands some over to Aino.
Then, they both understood what it signified and started hugging the bones and weeping in sorrow.

I could only hear their sobbing along with the sound of the flowing river in the background.

I take one last look at the bones that Aino is gently holding onto before turning and following the river downstream.
Alo’s lingering regret was most likely to see Aino and Tatarc again.
Because they were out of touch with each other, she was worried about what became to them after her death, and she couldn’t bear them separating.
That would mean that, with her final wish fulfilled, she has left this world for good and can finally rest in peace.

I could feel the emptiness in my chest as I traverse through the river, and I keep trying to convince myself that this was for the best.
Then, a rattling sound is heard behind me, and when I turned to look, Petite Nightmare is seen crawling after me.

“Gruooo……”

I make a low growl and call out to it.

So…… you’ll be coming with me too, huh.
Thanks for the company. But, what about your other Arachne siblings?

The masked spider, Petite Nightmare, shakes its head in response.
It seems like the other spiders will be staying behind in this forest then.
For monsters, knowing where they live is a matter of life and death for them.
Their instincts won’t tell them to leave even if you want them to.
That’s the norm for them though.

As we pass by a tree near the river, the tree suddenly moves and approaches me.
Oh hey, Treant! …… Almost forgot about you.
I see…… so, you want to come with me too…… I see, I see……
H-How do I carry you though. You might not be able to keep up with us, Treant.
Well, it’s not like we’re in a hurry or anything, so no need to rush, I guess…… but, just when I thought of that, I noticed that there’s a child sitting on one of Treant’s branches.

The child jumps down from Treant and lands directly below my head.
This child…… oh wait, it’s just Alo.
I lower my head and put my face closer to Alo.

H-How…… why?
I thought you already ascended to heaven. Are you really fine with coming with me?
I’m about to leave this forest, you know.

“…… I also can’t stay here too”

Alo looks back to the forest with a sad expression.
Noticing I was silent, Alo tries to make herself look upbeat to hide her sadness.

“It’ll be okay. I got to talk to them…… one last time. And, they said they won’t leave each other again”

“I also thought I’d disappear after meeting daddy and mommy again. But, the truth is, there’s still one last thing I want to do”

One more regret to satisfy?
T-Then…… is it really a good idea for you to leave this place? If you still have some business left back in the village, you don’t have to trouble yourself by coming with me.

Alo makes a gesture by putting her hands on her ears, asking me to lend her my ear.
I wondered what she’s gonna whisper to me as I put my ear closer to her.
But, instead of a whisper, I received a kiss.

“That’s a secret”

After that, Alo gives me a genuine smile, turns her back on me, and freely runs ahead.

While I was starstruck at what just happened, Partner was looking at me with a smug grin on her face.
That made me feel flustered for a bit, so I faced forward and chased after Alo.

After matching my pace with Alo’s, I look back behind and see Petite Nightmare steadily catching up to us, and Treant who’s dead last, hurriedly following after us.