I woke with a start. How had I slept so soundly?! It felt like the first time ever. Until now, I’d always slept with one eye open, always ready to fight at a moment’s notice. Even if I was at the limits of exhaustion, I was ready.
And yet this time I’d slept like a rock!
“I don’t believe it,” I muttered.
A voice responded, “Good morning, Myne.”
I turned to see Fate.
“Wha—?!”
I hadn’t expected to see him. I felt self-conscious, but Fate smiled.
“I’m impressed. You managed to get so close to me without revealing your presence,” I said.
“I came to wake you up, but you were out like a light, so I wasn’t sure if I should.”
“Hmph. I wasn’t sleeping that soundly.”
“Oh?” said Fate, curiosity in his eyes. “If you say so. I’m glad you woke so peacefully. It’s normally such an ordeal with you. That’s why I’m the one who always has to wake you up.”
I got the sense that rumors were spreading about my sleep habits. I needed to set the record straight, and I started coming up with potential strategies in my head when Fate interrupted my train of thought.
“If you don’t get up soon, you’ll miss out on breakfast.”
“Miss out?”
“I am Gluttony, you know. I might just eat your share. We’ll be in the dining room.”
With those words, he left the room. He seemed in high spirits, and I wondered if I had only imagined the troubled face I saw yesterday.
“First things first: food.”
I changed into my clothes, then saw Sloth leaning against the wall. Perhaps Fate had brought her to my room earlier. Easiest way to find out was to ask.
“Morning, Sloth,” I said.
“Morning, Myne.”
“You’re up earlier than usual.”
“I woke up when Fate brought me here. More importantly, I’m glad to see you two still talking.”
“Yes.”
Fate and I had fought, but we’d come to something of an understanding. I had started it all. That was why I felt unsure about how to face him when we talked. In the end, it was no different than usual. Perhaps he was simply being nice to me. When he’d come to wake me, he said nothing of our battle or our parting at the kingdom.
“There’s a lot that has to come from you, Myne,” said Sloth.
“Yes.”
There was so much I wanted to say, but I needed time, especially when I remembered that he had seen into the depths of my soul. I was filled with shame. I wasn’t ready…
In the meantime, I wanted Sloth to tell me about yesterday’s discussion. I wanted to hear about Shin, Fate’s father, and the now-floating continent of Galia. I was curious about all of it. But there was one topic I wanted to start with.
“Tell me about Fate’s father,” I said.
“I had a feeling you’d want to start there. Okay.”
I listened so attentively to Sloth that all thoughts of breakfast slipped my mind. Fate’s father was one of the holy beastfolk. It was a fact I hadn’t known. Now he was just one step away from completely opening the Door to Distant Lands. I thought back to my parting with Luna, the pain of that memory. But through the battle with Fate, I’d been able to talk with her one last time, and she had saved me. She told me to live for her and to live in the present, and I could feel her support pushing me forward.
“Fate…how is he?”
Fate’s goal was the opposite of his father’s: to close the Door to Distant Lands. But he had failed. I wondered if that was why he seemed so dejected.
“I don’t know,” said Sloth. “You’ll have to ask him yourself.”
“Hm…”
“What are you worried about?”
“How do I… I’m not sure how to ask,” I said.
“Oh my, I’d completely forgotten. You’re so powerful in battle and so weak when it comes to this sort of thing.”
“Grr…I’m not weak!”
“Really?”
“Sloth, please.”
“Say no more.”
I only knew how to swing an axe. That was all. In times like this, I needed Sloth’s knowledge of feminine matters. I was glad to have such a reliable partner.
“You’re a good girl, Sloth.”
I massaged the blade of the black axe, and she almost purred with contentment.
“Oh, yes. That’s the spot. That feels good.”
I didn’t know how true this was, but Sloth claimed weapons could develop stiffness just like humans. I once told Sloth that she was like an old woman and she grew incensed. She didn’t talk to me for an entire week. Jokes about age were off limits.
But having extracted the promise of instruction from Sloth, I started looking for Fate. It was easy, as we both bore Skills of Mortal Sin and thus could sense each other’s presence. I wandered the halls of the castle, feeling for Skills of Mortal Sin.
“This lewd aura is all wrong. Not him. Where’s the Glutton?”
The air was thick with sultriness. No doubt Eris was feeling excitable. She was practically a walking Eros incarnate.
“She’s getting in the way. I can’t concentrate,” I said. “I’m going to knock her out.”
“Calm down,” said Sloth. “Try one more time, and if it still doesn’t work, then you can put her to sleep.”
“Okay, fine.”
I searched once more for the Gluttony skill…for Fate.
“I found the Glutton.”
“Where?”
“North.”
“He must be in the courtyard somewhere.”
“Let’s go.”
I took a deep breath and left my room with Sloth in hand. The maids bowed politely as we passed them. It wasn’t something I was used to, so my responses were awkward. I could tell by their behavior that they saw me as a guest and had likely been told to treat me with the appropriate courtesy.
As soon as I left the manor and neared Fate’s location, I noticed the Eros.
“Grr!”
“Ah, it’s Eris,” said Sloth. “And it looks like…”
“She’s going where we’re going?!”
“Indeed. What should we do?”
“We get rid of her. I need to talk to Fate today.”
“And so it comes to this. Poor Eris. She just can’t catch a break. Born under a bad star, perhaps…”
Fate was sitting by the fountain in the courtyard. Eris was watching him from afar, hidden in the greenery as I approached from behind. She was so focused on watching Fate that she was caught unawares.
In other words, she was vulnerable. To think she called herself an adventurer. I had my doubts.
Without a sound, I crept up and gave her a light chop to the back of the neck.
“Ow…” Eris groaned.
It was a good, solid strike. However, Eris still had time to turn and face me.
“Myne?! But this was…the perfect chance to…”
“It’s your fault for sneaking around and acting all suspicious.”
“Damn it…” she said as she lost consciousness.
I hid Eris’s body in the grass.
“What did she mean by ‘perfect chance’?” I asked.
“Beats me.”
In any case, I decided to see how Fate was doing. I peeked at him through the veil of greenery.
“You’re no better than Eris,” said Sloth.
“I’m not doing anything like that Eros. This is, well… Hmm… It’s different because it’s me.”
“Flawless logic,” the axe said sarcastically.
I was doing the same thing that Eris had done. It was embarrassing, so I had to have some reason for doing it. I didn’t want to be compared to Eris. But more importantly, there really was something strange about Fate. Even Sloth was worried.
“Ah, so that’s what happened…”
“What? You mean because his father opened the Door to Distant Lands?”
“No, though that’s a problem in and of itself. Actually, there was one more thing that Roxy and the others talked about yesterday…”
“You never told me.”
“Sorry, I just felt it was better that you heard it from Fate himself. But I guess now’s the time to tell you. It’s about Greed…”
In order to unlock his Fifth Level, Greed had sacrificed himself. Which meant…Fate had lost the partner he’d fought with all this time?! They had truly paid a huge price to defeat the Zodiac Aquarius. I couldn’t bear to hear it. Just thinking about losing Sloth filled me with fear.
“Fate…”
I knew, perhaps better than anyone else, how important Greed was to Fate. It was because of the black sword’s ongoing support that Fate had made it this far. The Weapons of Mortal Sin weren’t just important to those who wielded them—they were irreplaceable.
“What do I do?”
“What’s wrong, Myne?”
“What do I even say? I don’t know what to do.”
“Hmm. Then again, even Eris was so at a loss that she hid in the bushes. I think you should just act like you always do.”