"I really appreciate your offer, but... I still want to stay with the Imperial Guards," Amy said in response to Caron's proposal.0

Caron had already expected her to turn him down. He replied, "Well, that's not surprising."0

"Are you not going to ask me why?" Amy asked.0

"It's obvious. You want to stay there and change the Imperial Guards from within, right?" Caron answered.0

"...That's right," Amy said.0

"I know people like you. They're stubborn, upright... and foolish," Caron said, smiling bitterly before taking a sip of the sangria the server had just brought over.1

Perhaps it was because he hadn't visited the capital in so long that old memories started surfacing, memories he hadn't thought about in a long time. The men who had chosen to stay and fight alongside him until the bitter end in the imperial palace, back when he was Cain Latorre… Unlike him, who had been bound by duty to remain, they had stayed of their own free will, and died.0

They had been just like Amy.0

As Cain, he had told them they didn't need to stay, and that they should leave and find their own lives beyond the empire. And yet, they'd stubbornly chosen to stay, to fight and die alongside Cain.0

"Did we know that bastard emperor was insane? Of course we did," one of the knights had said. 0

"Who the hell wouldn't know that? We just wanted to die alongside you, Captain," another knight had added.0

"I don't care if the bastard emperor goes down in disgrace, but at least you, Captain, should die as an honorable knight! Hahaha!" yet another had said.0

Most of the knights...0