Michel still intended to cause an incident using gunpowder.

She thought she had anticipated and prepared for it.

However, when she found out that Michel was actually going to proceed with it, she felt a sting in her chest.

“…No way,” Theodore clicked his tongue, looked back at Rishe, and whispered.

“Rovine isn’t a knight. He isn’t a knight, and yet he moves like one because he is the lord of the northernmost region of Garkhain.”

“…So you’ve decided that Koyor’s guest, Dr. Michel, is a threat to Garkhain?”

“Yes. If your father has already heard of this matter, then your brother may have received some kind of order.”

Rishe clenched her hands tightly.

Michel hinted at an attack on Garkhain, and Rovine moved to keep watch.

What if Emperor Garkhain hears of it and orders Arnold to do something?

Prince Kyle…

Rishe shot a glance at Michel while suppressing her impatience.

“Teacher Michel, the actions you’ll take will involve even innocent people.”

“Yes, I know. I know.”

“Teacher……!!”

Michel looked at Rishe when she screamed and deposited the scented cigarette in his fingers.

“It’s the best way to show it off, right?　It’s the best way to show people the power of gunpowder and the kind of misery it can create.”

“… Create misery?”

“Yes, it does. That’s what gunpowder exists for. As its creator, I should make sure that it fulfills its role.”

Michel has been saying this since her third life.

Everything has a reason for its existence and a role to play.

And that fulfilling that role was the meaning of its birth.

That’s how Teacher Michel and I parted ways.

Rishe just couldn’t accept Miche’s principles.

She wanted to stop Michel from trying to use gunpowder, and she even begged him not to.

But in the end, nothing worked out and they went their separate ways and never saw each other again.

“I have to take responsibility for what I’ve created – even if it makes someone else unhappy.”

He uttered in a muffled voice.

[“Goodbye, my student.”]

His smile was just like that moonlit night that day.

It reminded Rishe of her last night as an alchemist when she exchanged words with Michel. But that was back then.

“Sister-in-law!

“!”

Theodore raised his voice. There was a knight by his side, and he seemed to have heard something.

Rishe heard the report from Theodore and gasped.

It’s time…

******

In the gardens of the Imperial Castle in Garkhain, Michel Evan was feeling strange.

The reason for this was the girl standing in front of him.

The girl named Rishe, whom he had decided to call his “student” on a whim after coming to this country, was giving him a stubborn and sincere look.

That’s weird.

Michel bent his neck as he savored his sweet cigarette.

She looks angry, but it also doesn’t look like it… However, there is no way that I can understand the human heart.

He was reminded of a distant memory like a haze.

[“–My wife died because of your birth.”]

The man, his father, had repeatedly told him that.

His emaciated father was in a dimly lit mansion filled with books. The servants had disappeared, and the young Michel heard these words incessantly.

[“You must pay for what you’ve done to me. You were born to make us miserable, you’re the (shinigami) Grim Reaper…!”

His father used to be a very talented scholar.

However, he changed after his mother’s death. He started to hate Michel, who was the closest to him, and blamed him for her death.

[“…I’m sorry I was born at, Father.”]

He clutched my robe tightly and apologized to him.

Even though he was hungry and lonely, he didn’t beg his father for anything. Instead, he reached for the books that were piled up all over the mansion, as if to cover up his starving belly.

It was only when Michel touched the books did his father’s gaze on him soften just a little.

Fortunately, the academy also accepted Michel.

Knowledge poured easily into his mind, and he felt comfortable with it. He used the knowledge he had acquired from the books in the same way he breathed and drank water.

Eventually, Michel’s father took him outside. A lot of adults surrounded him. His father would tell them outside.

[“This child inherited my power. You can use him as much as you like in my place.”]

The adults buzzed, but Michel was delighted.

His father wanted something from him. For the first time in his life, Michel was given a role other than “killed his mother and made his parents unhappy”.

[“Father. Can I be of use to you?”]

He asked, feeling dependent on him.

He looked at him as if he were looking at something repulsive and said, [“Of course.”]

He remembered shivering at his coldness.

“Since I’ve been raising you, Grim Reaper, you should at least be useful for that. Because that’s your ‘right use’.”

“…”

T/N: This is dark, very dark…awww, poor Michel. I’m in tears… I’m one of those who cry easily, so, I’ll continue this tomorrow…

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