Three days later.
Sothos Castle had more or less returned to normal.
The lords, soldiers, and scholars who had supported Colin had been purged, Feli's spy network had been torn out by the roots, and the innocent had been released. Everything seemed to have returned to its proper course.
But everyone who had seen that Green Banyan knew that nothing could ever go back to the way it was.
On the castle balcony.
Aaron and Theodore sat facing each other, two cups of honey water on the table before them.
They sat in silence for a long time. At last, Theodore broke it first. "I suppose... I've always underestimated you. You were so different from the time you were little, and even more so as you grew up... Should I call you Aaron now, or 'Son of Green Banyan,' or even 'King of Green Forest'?"
"Whatever you like..."
Aaron sighed. "Things have gone this far. I have no choice but to become Count of Green Forest. I once heard the saying, 'With great power comes great responsibility.' It's actually a lie!"
"The full saying should be: the greater your ability, the greater your power and status, and only then does your responsibility grow! Leaving out the middle and talking only about the beginning and the end is a scam!"
"In reality, people with higher status usually do everything they can to shirk responsibility. That's how things really are!"
"But now that things have come this far, if I don't claim the highest authority in the Green Forest, whoever takes the position will eventually bring division and war. So I have to become the count..."
Theodore took a sip of honey water, but it only left a bitter taste in his mouth.
As the former symbol of the Green Forest's will