Liberi Reader

Her master's house is located at the end of this alley. Years ago, Crownslayer stormed off in a rage to prove that she was strong enough to take revenge on the conspiracies looming over her.

Now, Lyudmila has returned once more. Whether or not her efforts have poked a hole through that gloomy sky, she cannot yet say.

Possibly, nothing at all has changed. Possibly, she has become an accomplice to an even greater calamity.

But luckily, Lyudmila is still able to return to this place. She thinks to herself, surely her teacher will be able to tell her what to do next.

At that moment, she suddenly feels a chill.

At first, Lyudmila assumes it is because she is nervous about facing her teacher again.

But just as quickly, she realizes that she was wrong.

She starts to shake uncontrollably, on the spot.

A shovel digs into the dirt. Then again.

Leontuzzo is struggling to dig a grave in the cemetery.

Next to him is a coffin in which his father, Bernardo, sleeps.

Today is the funeral of Bernardo, the former don of Famiglia Bellone.

A funeral for one of the Dodici dons should have seen the entire cemetery packed to the fences.

But, not a single soul will mourn the passing of a man who betrayed his famiglia, his city, and his society.

Leontuzzo also asked Lavinia and the others not to come.

This is his last farewell to his father.

Leontuzzo continues to chat animatedly as if his father is still alive with him as he digs.

But other than that, he doesn't know what else to say.

Enough space has been made in the ground to accommodate the coffin. The last thing that remains is to lower it in.

Leontuzzo walks to the front of the coffin, hesitates for a moment, but finally reaches out his hands.

The coffin is extremely heavy, and pushing it is a very demanding task.

Just as his strength is about to waver, he is suddenly joined by a pair of helping hands.

Leontuzzo turns his head, and sees Demetri right next to him.

Leontuzzo looks at Lavinia, his eyes shining with determination.

Each wolf, from its moment of birth, knows that its existence is a symbol of the wastelands.

After countless eras and countless conflicts, they finally selected the alpha wolf through the rules of the game as it had been played up to that point.

For Zaaro, his defeat this round was, undoubtedly, a disgrace.

But they will continue to live on.

As long as there is another round of the game to be played, he will stage his comeback in time.

To this end, he has already started searching for suitable candidates.

And almost immediately, he found Lappland, wandering the wastes after having left Volsinii.

However—

Zaaro and Lappland have been fighting in the wastes for the past three months.

During that time, Zaaro had countless opportunities to sink his fangs into the neck of this madwoman.

There was no way for her to defeat him.

But, he gradually comes to realize, it is actually he who has no way of defeating her.

No thought can be nourished in her blood and sinew, no victory can be proclaimed in her head, and no meaning can be derived from her death.

She is an empty husk that has been filled.

Is she also the wastes?

No, she is an overgrowth.

He understands in an instant that if Bernardo's betrayal was an unexpected act of rationality, the being before him is completely beyond his comprehension.

No, he has seen humans like her before. She is hardly unique.

But at this unique point in time, she indeed is the only such one before him.

An omen.

A summon.

And thus, for the first time in thousands of years and perhaps the last time, the incarnation of the wastes lies down next to a human being.

He chooses to surrender his dignity to the unknown.

Lappland's weapons slip from her grasp. She has already lost consciousness.

Before she falls, Zaaro walks over and supports her body with his own, as if it is the most natural thing to do.

She closes her eyes, and falls into a deep slumber.

The vast wilderness is completely devoid of anything else. For a brief moment, it seems as if all existence between heaven and earth is but one human and one wolf.