In time, the second fireworks blast off in the sky.

The moment Michel averted his gaze, Rishe spoke clearly.

“–My teacher once showed me the aurora borealis.”

When she said this, Michel, who was almost deadpan, slowly looked at her.

“Back then, I was trying to figure out how to tell if a piece of metal contained a certain toxic metal. And then, when my teacher showed me the northern lights, I noticed that it resembled something — It’s the reaction of a metal on fire.

“–That’s right. When you burn metal, the flames change color depending on the type of metal. The blue and green flames certainly resemble the aurora borealis.”

Rishe nodded at Michel’s somewhat absent-minded response.

What she used for the fireworks was metal shavings obtained from a craftsman in Koyor. She asked Kyle to get the powder, which was never available in the market.

“I thought the experience gave me a way to identify the type of metal, but there was more to it than that.”

She sighed and told him.

“If you look at it another way, you’ve also got a way to color the flames.”

Michel’s eyes widened slightly.

“Do you see a flicker of light floating in the darkness as a torch of war or as the light of a firefly? A slight change in perspective can completely change the meaning of an event.”

Rishe realized this the night she and Arnold talked on the balcony.

How could they stop Michel? How could she get Arnold to accept Koyor?

It occurred to her that the answer to both of these questions was to offer a different perspective and value to what they perceived as worthless or harmful.

“Even if there’s only one observed phenomenon, that doesn’t mean there is only one role for it.”

That was why she thought.

Wasn’t the role of humans and things the same?

“-!”

Michel had always believed that he had a role to play in making people unhappy.

Rishe’s retort that something could exist without meaning was denied. But come to think of it, it was only natural.

Because my teacher is an alchemist.

Unless proven true, words were merely hypotheses.

Michel, a genius alchemist, would never believe in others’ hypotheses, much less swallow them.

If I don’t prove it in front of his eyes and show the conclusion, we’ll never get anything…

So this was how she proved it.

“There is no single effect that a person or thing can have. There’s no such thing as an entity that exists only to make someone unhappy.”

“–Did you invent this mechanism just to make me understand that?　Why did you go so far…?”

The answer to the question was obvious.

“Because I am your student.”

“!”

There was no way Michel could understand what Rishe meant by “your student.”

But still, she piled on the words as if praying.

Michel was someone who generously provided her diverse knowledge in her former life.

Even if Teacher doesn’t know that … even if the world rewinds …

They would never disappear.

As long as Rishe remembered, that fact would always exist in her mind.

“If you really think that your existence and what you’ve created with your own hands is something that can only make someone else unhappy…”

In a corner of the Imperial Capital, she spotted a third fireball glowing.

Even with Michel’s device, there would inevitably be a time error. The third fireball, which ignited a bit late, seemed to climb up into the sky with a trailing tail behind it.

“I will continue to preach with all my heart that this isn’t so.”

“…”

Just before it exploded in the sky above, the light disappeared for a moment.

“Please see with your own eyes … What you have created will bring out a value you never knew.”

B-O-O-M! A resounding explosion echoed.

Large flowers bloomed in the night sky, and they twinkled like meteors.

The light twinkling in blue and green sprinkled out just like stardust. With a dry, crunching sound, they dyed a part of the sky and made it shine as brightly as the aurora borealis.

Michel stared at the light and squinted his eyes, looking very dazzled.

“…I didn’t know.”

He murmured.

“I knew about the flame color reaction and how gunpowder works. It never occurred to me that they could be used in this way.”

“…I’m sure there’s plenty more. From a different perspective, there are other uses for the things you invented and that you thought are poisonous to this world.”

“Fufufu, maybe you’re right.”

Michel chuckled ruefully.

“You’re amazing, Rishe.”

“Not at all, Teacher.”

She shook her head and told him positively.

“Not at all, it is you Teacher. You’re a peerless genius in the world and an alchemist who will create even more wonderful inventions in the future.”

“… You say the craziest things.”

After giving her a puzzled look, Michel looked up at the sky again.

“But, yeah… Is that so?”

His smile was bleeding with the ephemeral demeanor of a cry.

“I was able to create the source of such a beauty…”