Lich Grunewald

"I've read the letter of introduction you brought..."

Matthias's voice was hollow and slow. If not for its friendly tone, it would have sounded utterly eerie and terrifying: "You know Cyril?"

"He's something like an elder of mine."

Aleister said frankly, "He taught... someone very important to me Advanced Divine Arts, so I owe him a debt."

"Pope Iver?"

Matthias immediately guessed whom Aleister meant.

"...You don't seem quite as out of touch with current affairs as I thought."

Aleister sounded somewhat helpless.

I heard everyone on the Path of Twilight was a Martian. How did the First Black Prime Minister know about her and Iver the moment he came out of seclusion?

"It's just that I pay closer attention to Cyril's affairs."

The skeleton in the plain black robe shook his head slightly and said no more. His neck made a crisp, clicking sound.

Aleister, however, grew interested. "Come to think of it... I remember Cyril mentioning that you two were friends... Headmaster, did you know each other back in the Imperial era?"

"...That's how he described me?"

Matthias did not answer. Instead, with a faint echo in his voice, he lightly asked a question in return.

Aleister was somewhat puzzled. "What's wrong?"

"Before I set foot on this path, Cyril and I were indeed friends."

Were.

Aleister understood. "Then that means..."

"At the time, he was not yet a Cardinal Bishop, and I had not entered the Spirit Tower. But when I decided to take this path, we broke off our friendship.

"Because he could not accept having a friend on the Path of Twilight back then, while I had to take this path."

Matthias's voice was ethereal and lingering, like a shepherd's flute on the grasslands. "After that, we never contacted each other again. The fact that