The stone remained where it was.
Half-buried.
Forgotten.
Waiting for another traveler to find it centuries from now.
Haruto gave it one last look before turning away.
The message had answered nothing.
Instead, it had somehow created even more questions.
Which seemed to be Arthur's specialty.
The sun continued sinking.
The desert darkened.
And beside him—
Belial was being suspicious.
Again.
Haruto walked for several minutes before speaking.
"...you've been acting weird."
"I'M ALWAYS WEIRD."
"More than usual."
Belial immediately pretended to examine a rock.
There weren't any rocks nearby.
The performance was terrible.
Haruto sighed.
"Belial."
The goat continued looking elsewhere.
"BELIAL IS CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE."
"Belial."
"PLEASE LEAVE A MESSAGE AFTER THE BEEP."
"There was no beep."
"THAT'S BECAUSE I'M A GOAT."
Haruto stopped walking.
Belial took three more steps before realizing.
Then stopped too.
The wind drifted quietly across the dunes.
Neither spoke.
Eventually—
Belial groaned.
"OH COME ON."
"You know something."
"I KNOW MANY THINGS."
"You know something about Arthur."
Silence.
Belial's ears twitched.
Haruto noticed.
The goat noticed him noticing.
Both immediately wished the other hadn't noticed.
A long moment passed.
Then Belial sat down.
"...I never met him."
Haruto blinked.
That wasn't the answer he expected.
The goat looked away.
Toward the horizon.
Toward nowhere.
"I KNOW OF HIM."
A pause.
"Everyone like me does."
Like me.
Interesting wording.
Haruto filed that away.
"What was he?"
Belial's expression became strange.
Not fearful.
Not respectful.
Something else.
Something harder to describe.
"...annoying."
Haruto stared.
"What?"
"INCREDIBLY ANNOYING."
The goat pointed dramatically.
"DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY PROBLEMS ONE HUMAN CAN CAUSE?"
"Apparently a lot."
"EXACTLY."
Haruto fought back a smile.
Belial stood again.
The usual humor remained.
But something underneath it felt genuine.
Arthur mattered.
Not because he was powerful.
Because he had left a mark.
Belial kicked at the sand.
"He kept refusing."
"Refusing what?"
The goat glanced at him.
Then away.
"...to disappear."
The smile vanished from Haruto's face.
Immediately.
The desert suddenly felt quieter.
Belial continued walking.
Slowly.
Thoughtfully.
"He was supposed to be forgotten."
A pause.
"He didn't agree."
The words settled heavily between them.
Haruto looked down at Arthur's cloak.
The old fabric moved gently in the wind.
Not magical.
Not legendary.
Just stubborn.
Like its owner.
A strange feeling formed in Haruto's chest.
Because for the first time—
Arthur felt less like a mystery.
And more like a person.
Someone who had fought.
Lost.
And left behind enough clues to help the next fool.
"...sounds familiar."
Belial looked at him.
Then laughed.
A genuine laugh.
Not mocking.
Not sarcastic.
Just amused.
"YEAH."
The goat pointed at him.
"THAT'S THE PROBLEM."
Haruto frowned.
"What is?"
Belial's grin widened.
"You REMIND ME OF HIM."
"...that's not possible."
"YOU BOUGHT A RANDOM CLOAK."
"It wasn't random."
"YOU FOLLOW MYSTERIOUS CLUES."
"..."
"YOU KEEP WALKING TOWARD THINGS THAT ARE CLEARLY BAD IDEAS."
"..."
Belial raised another hoof.
"YOU ALSO IGNORE GOOD ADVICE."
Haruto couldn't even argue anymore.
The similarities were becoming uncomfortable.
The goat nodded confidently.
"SEE?"
"I don't like this conversation."
"I LOVE THIS CONVERSATION."
Darkness slowly spread across the Sea of Glass.
Stars began appearing overhead.
Hundreds.
Then thousands.
More than Haruto had ever seen on Earth.
The desert transformed beneath the night sky.
Cold replaced heat.
Silence replaced wind.
The world felt impossibly vast.
Haruto found himself looking upward.
Without realizing it.
The stars looked different here.
Some constellations existed.
Others didn't.
Entire sections of the sky felt unfamiliar.
Then—
he noticed two lights.
Far brighter than the others.
One silver.
One blue.
They sat opposite each other in the heavens.
Too large to be stars.
Too distant to be moons.
Haruto slowed.
"...Belial."
The goat glanced upward.
Then immediately looked away.
As if the sight was normal.
"What?"
"What are those?"
Belial didn't answer immediately.
Which was never a good sign.
Finally—
the goat sighed.
"...everybody knows those."
"Clearly not everybody."
"FAIR."
Haruto waited.
Belial scratched behind one ear.
Then pointed upward.
"The silver one is called Evernight."
The brighter light glowed softly above the eastern horizon.
Ancient.
Beautiful.
Almost peaceful.
The goat then pointed toward the blue light.
"The other is Dawnfall."
Haruto stared.
The names felt important.
Older than kingdoms.
Older than cities.
The kind of names civilizations inherited.
Not created.
"What are they?"
Belial shrugged.
"NOBODY KNOWS."
"Nobody?"
"NOBODY."
The answer felt suspiciously incomplete.
Haruto narrowed his eyes.
Belial immediately looked elsewhere.
Suspicious.
Very suspicious.
But Haruto let it go.
For now.
His attention remained on the two lights.
Silver.
Blue.
Separated by an ocean of stars.
Yet somehow connected.
The sight stirred something strange inside him.
A feeling he couldn't explain.
A memory he couldn't reach.
And for just a moment—
far away on the other side of the continent—
a young woman stood beneath the same sky.
Looking at the same lights.
Feeling the same inexplicable pull.
Neither knew it.
Neither understood it.
Yet both paused at exactly the same moment.
As if some forgotten part of them still remembered.
The stars remained silent.
But the sky was beginning to tell a story.