The preparations were perfect.
The stage: a dark alley in a nighttime city.
The cast: myself and the Commander as leads. Yubina and Arishia as supporting roles.
The genre: a proper tragedy where the truth of one's heart is only realized at the very threshold of death.
All that remained was to see this performance through to the end without a hitch.
*Just this one last death, and I'll wrap up the prologue…!*
I wasn't particularly worried about failure.
After all, things had been flowing exactly as I wanted up until now.
With overwhelming preparation and cunning on my side, there was no room for variables.
I was certain this time would go just as smoothly as the last.
"Not here yet."
A morning where the air felt cold.
Having arrived at the Commander's office early, I glanced around the room.
The lights were off. No one was there.
I checked the time — a little earlier than usual.
It seemed my feet had quickened on their own, carried along by a touch of excitement.
I sat down, propped my chin in my hand, and gazed out the window for no particular reason.
I wondered when the Commander would arrive. I briefly considered peeking into his bedroom.
Though he was probably in the middle of changing right about now.
Not exactly a pretty girl. What would I even get out of watching him change?
"Oh, right. Let me test that thing."
On a whim, I reached into my breast pocket and pulled out a pen.
The very same pen that had been rolling around under the Commander's bed just a few hours ago.
The pen I'd told that elaborate lie about — claiming it had all sorts of complicated circumstances behind it.
I pressed down on the bottom of the pen and fed a current through it.
In an instant, the pen responded to my control and glowed faintly.
I connected it to my network and linked it to a terminal.
The terminal screen reflected a familiar ceiling.
I rotated the pen's angle with one hand.
On the screen appeared an absolutely stunning girl with navy-blue hair, viewed from below.
*Still beautiful even from that angle? That's practically cheating.*
I smiled to myself — *mhm* — and severed the connection between the pen and the terminal.
*Yep. Works perfectly. That's just how good I am.*
What I'd sourced from the black market was a modular camera.
Its form was entirely different from a camcorder or a digital camera.
The lens was about half the size of a pinky fingernail.
The whole unit, battery included, was small enough to sit in the palm of a hand.
And as compact as it was, the structure was correspondingly simple.
Simple enough that anyone could modify it without any specialized knowledge.
So I'd hollowed out the inside of a pen and stacked the components in neatly.
And thus, a camera masquerading as a pen was born.
*If a camera turns up on a corpse, someone might find that suspicious.*
A pretty girl who records someone's suffering to preserve it forever.
If something like that got out, it would absolutely, unconditionally destroy any goodwill.
Of course, unless someone had a remarkably vivid imagination, they'd never think to suspect I was passing footage across loops.
Still — I didn't want to give the Commander even the slightest opening to wonder.
*You'd better capture everything nicely after I die.*
I idly turned the pen — my camera — over in my fingers.
Then I tucked it carefully back into my breast pocket.
I was just checking whether my outfit looked natural when I heard it — the familiar sound of footsteps in the corridor, steady and unhurried.
Footsteps I could identify by instinct alone.
The door opened, and the Commander appeared.
"Good morning, Commander."
"Good morning."
I greeted him as indifferently as I could manage.
Inwardly, one corner of my heart was buzzing with a faint excitement.
To keep it from showing, I threw myself even deeper into my role.
Unlike me, who felt oddly light in every sense, he seemed a little tense.
The stoic expression he usually wore had set itself even harder than normal.
*Really now.* If he was that wound up, he'd fumble things he could otherwise handle just fine.
I looked away, feigning disinterest, and covered my lips with my fingertips.
Watching the Commander like this — I couldn't help it. A smile crept up on me.
*Haah…. I can't wait.*
My condition was perfect, and the weather was fine.
Somehow, today felt like it was going to be a good day.
*
Atop the high walls encircling the city.
Yujin stood quietly, watching the sunset, and thought to himself:
*What a beautiful sight.*
In truth, seeing a sunset from within the city was a rare experience.
The walls, dozens of meters tall, blocked out the sky.
And the top of the walls was treated as a classified military installation on top of that.
There were probably people who had gone their entire lives without ever seeing a sunset.
*Though I suppose you could see one from a tall enough building….*
For Yujin, who hadn't come from a wealthy background, it was an unfamiliar sight.
Looking down from atop the high walls was even more so.
So there he was, staring blankly at the fading horizon — when someone quietly approached his side.
"Commander. What are you doing?"
"I was… watching the sunset for a moment."
"The sunset?"
The one who had spoken was none other than Leila.
Perhaps it was the red-tinged sunlight flooding the world with color.
Her face, too, was bathed in the warm hue of the setting sun.
*Strange — I keep noticing it anew, but she really is a remarkably beautiful person.*
For some reason, Yujin found her strangely unfamiliar in that moment.
He stood there, staring at Leila without quite realizing it, until he caught himself and looked away.
"It's a rare sight. I lost myself in it without thinking."
"Is that so? I think of sunsets as something that happens every day."
Both of them were right, in their own way.
If you had no reason to climb the walls, you had no reason to see a sunset.
And yet sunsets happened every single day, without exception.
It was simply a difference in perspective — in where you stood and what you looked toward.
Yujin watched the fading sunset and, without quite meaning to, turned to her.
"Leila. Are you all right?"
"Hm? What do you mean?"
"Ah."
He had been the one to speak, and now the words dried up in his throat.
He hadn't been thinking about it — the question had simply slipped out on its own.
Flustered, a memory surfaced in Yujin's mind.
It was from the 2nd loop, he was fairly certain.
A desperate moment, standing before something worse than death.
He had asked Leila whether she was afraid.
And at the end of that exchange, she had answered:
*—If anything, I'm the lucky one. I get to keep being remembered by you, as you keep moving forward.*
A Valkyrie always accepts the possibility of death.
So if anything, your existence gives me something to hold onto.
Yujin had undoubtedly been saved by the strength of her conviction.
But now, his thinking had shifted — just a little.
Had she truly felt nothing about dying?
He had always believed Leila carried a strong heart within her.
But something in what she had shown him had shaken something inside Yujin — roughly, without warning.
"…Leila. Let's go."
"Yes."
The sun sank lower, and night began to come.
The sunset disappeared beyond the horizon.
The sky deepened into dusk.
While Leila was buzzing with anticipation for what lay ahead —
a change stirred quietly in the depths of Yujin's eyes as he looked out over the city.
*
Evening. The sun had fully set, and the sky had gone dark.
Leila and Yujin, both wearing cloaks over their clothes, came to a stop somewhere.
A dark back alley with that distinctive smell of damp earth.
Facing each other, they met each other's gaze and spoke the words they had agreed upon.
"Then let's go ahead and Link here."
"Yes. Please, Commander."
Link — the ability to connect Stigmas and transmit intent between two people.
The reason Leila and Yujin were Linking was simple enough.
In this fight, Yujin had a role to play.
*I need to support Leila's battle with the lighting drones.*
His role was critically important.
To prevent Midir from slipping carelessly into the shadows —
someone needed to operate the lighting drones and keep the area illuminated.
Leila had said she'd prefer him somewhere safe.
Words she didn't mean even the tiniest bit, of course.
But Midir and Leila were roughly matched in combat ability.
Operating the lighting drones on top of that would be a significant burden.
So it was decided that Yujin, who had the bandwidth to spare, would handle the drones in her place.
"I'm counting on you, Commander."
"I won't let you down."
Yujin recalled his past experiences Linking with Valkyries.
That sensation of being connected to another person's mind by the finest of threads.
No need for words — intent could be conveyed with a glance alone.
In a fight like this one, it was a more valuable weapon than almost anything else.
Yujin successfully Linked with Leila.
And in that state, the moment he happened to look at her —
he felt a small, strange dissonance.
*What is this? Why is my chest….*
They were clearly in a precarious situation, danger looming just ahead.
And yet, for some reason, his heart was pounding — swelling with something.
It was a small enough sensation that he might have dismissed it as imagination.
But the feeling that had drifted in from somewhere left his thoughts spinning.
…Could this emotion be something Leila was feeling?
He studied her expression and quietly shook his head.
Her face was dark — tense, clearly.
Besides, he'd never heard that Linking allowed you to feel another person's emotions.
Maybe the pounding in his chest was simply because it was Leila.
What a useless thing to be thinking about at a time like this.
He was left speechless by his own self-contempt.
"Commander. We're here."
"…Yes."
While Yujin was quietly suffering over his own foolishness —
they arrived at the location where Midir was expected to appear.
The escape routes had been sealed off in advance.
Drones were stationed throughout the area, waiting in low-power mode.
Yujin, who had let his guard slip for a moment, sharpened his expression again.
*Whatever it takes — this ends tonight.*
A dim alley, barely lit.
Leila and Yujin looked at each other, eyes meeting.
The operation to hunt the black Erosion Species was beginning now.
Leila suppressed her presence and moved away from him.
Left alone, Yujin walked calmly through the dark alley.
His role right now was bait.
There was a chance Midir might recognize Leila's strength.
So he had to play the part of naive prey and draw Midir out.
*I was given a weapon for self-defense, just in case….*
He closed his hand around the card in his pocket.
A familiar grip. The same kind of card Leila had given him before.
Given that it was the object that had taken his life in a previous loop —
it was reassuring, and yet it left him with a complicated feeling.
Still, it should buy him enough time until Leila arrived.
Card in hand, Yujin moved through the dark path with practiced calm.
One step. Then another.
And the moment he stepped deeper into the alley —
Leila sent a signal through the Link.
A danger signal sharp enough to make his spine go cold.
The meaning was clear: *move, now.*
"Ngh—!"
Yujin threw himself aside faster than conscious thought.
It was almost simultaneous with receiving the signal from Leila.
Fortunately, it seemed he hadn't been too late.
From behind him came a sound that was anything but ordinary — something cutting through the air.
The sensation of something sharp slicing through the dark.
Yujin immediately swapped the card in his hand for a gun and aimed it behind him.
"…Kchk."
"The black Erosion Species!"
Perhaps displeased that its attack had been evaded —
the presence that had emerged faintly from the darkness let out a small sound.
*Finally.* Yujin's face twisted into a hard scowl.
Without a doubt, without any question — it was that thing.