By Zephyria 
Leonardo’s lips parted. His mind had suddenly become a chaotic mess. Kardo’s Gemstone was an object so rare that it was difficult to put a price on. He had expected that many other participants in this league would be after it besides himself… but he never imagined someone on his own team would be one of them.
“Oh, that—!”
As if glad to hear a familiar term, Beatrice pointed a finger at Orca.
“You need that pebble too?”
“Does Bell know about the Origin Stone as well?”
“Of course. But it’s ours.”
“Yours?”
At Orca’s question, Beatrice answered as if it were an obvious fact.
“We’re taking it.”
Gillian looked back at Leonardo once more. After confirming the bewildered gaze of the practical leader, he gripped the fork he had been twirling between his fingers. Then, he slammed the tines of the fork hard into the dish of roasted chicken legs.
Thud!
He had put so much force into it that the plates lined up on the table rattled in unison. Startled, Ero and Orca shifted their gaze toward Gillian.
“That’s the reason this lady and I joined the league. That magnificent object.”
Gillian intentionally drew a line between the two of them, acting as if Leonardo had nothing to do with it. The atmosphere turned cold in an instant. Perhaps it was because the fork, having pierced through the cooked chicken bone, was now half-bent.
As the strong will to never concede was conveyed, Orca raised a white eyebrow and looked back and forth between the two people opposite him. Then, with a fluid gesture, he tidied the drooping sleeves of his robe.
“I see.”
With a restrained movement, as if demonstrating a well-learned tea ceremony, he reached out and slid a plate toward Gillian.
“This is problematic. The Origin Stone cannot be split in half; did you two agree to cooperate from the start?”
“Well, that’s how it turned out. Since we share the same intent.”
“A loyal pet, then,” Orca murmured calmly.
It didn’t seem like he intended to grate on Gillian’s nerves, but the corners of Gillian’s mouth stiffened subtly. While he wasn’t openly hostile, Orca had completely hidden the gaps that had been exposed by his intoxication.
“I’m sorry, but I have no intention of yielding either. The future of my pack depends on me.”
This time, his voice was quite firm. Two gazes clashed in mid-air, engaging in a sudden war of nerves. Ero, who had been glancing between the two, tried to break the rigid atmosphere with a forced smile.
“Uh… so, that Origin Stone thing must be something really amazing, huh?”
Ero continued, moving the plates that had been displaced by the earlier shock further inward so they wouldn’t fall.
“Since everyone is so interested, I’m starting to get curious myself.”
“Stay out of it. It’s a tremendous object. Enough that the survival of this country could depend on it.”
“T-that much?”
As Ero’s eyes widened at the unexpected answer, Gillian, who had spoken, lifted the fork that had pierced the chicken leg. The heavy meat came up with it, dripping juices. Below, water and oil, unable to mix, flowed separately through the crack of the split plate.
“That’s a metaphor. Though it might actually become that soon.”
He chuckled and took a large bite of the meat, which might have had shards of glass embedded in it. Ero, who had missed the timing to stop him, could only gape. Orca, who had been watching silently, looked at the three of them—including Morbang—and asked.
“Why do you all need the Origin Stone?”
Gillian, chewing the meat, picked up his beer glass, gulped it down, and asked back.
“Why? If you hear our reasons and find them convincing, are you going to hand it over to us?”
“Not that, but I became curious because it seems you have reasons for needing it just as much as I do.”
Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, Gillian continued nonchalantly.
“Tell me. How would you feel if the lives of thousands, no, tens of thousands of people depended on that piece of stone?”
“Hmm?”
“Or if it were the only means to bring peace to pitiful souls who didn’t even make a single line in a newspaper when they died?”
Orca narrowed his eyes at the vague hypothesis and tilted his head.
“…Are you saying you also need the Origin Stone for the sake of a ‘pack’?”
“Well, you could look at it that way.”
Gillian ended again with an uncertain answer. The flow seemed to break for a moment, and by the time he had stripped all the meat from the chicken leg, he spoke again.
“Once, three kids lived in a completely white space. From the moment they opened their eyes until they fell asleep drugged, the three were always together. We weren’t blood-related, but we called each other brothers; we cared for and protected one another. We had no one else in the world to rely on but us. Wouldn’t that be a ‘pack’?”
Orca, who had been listening with focused posture, nodded.
“That is certainly a pack.”
“And if such a pack was used by cruel and selfish people, only to be broken and discarded as failed waste? What would you do then?”
“……..”
“Does that answer your question?”
“…Then, do you seek the Origin Stone for revenge? To harm the people who violated your brothers?”
“It’s not solely for revenge, but I expect that to be achieved in the process of fulfilling our great ambition.”
Only the occasional clinking of cutlery lingered. The outside was still noisy, but inside, those small sounds remained in the ears like incredibly sharp noise. Hearing the word ‘we’ again, Orca this time turned his gaze toward Beatrice.
“Does Bell also seek the Origin Stone for revenge?”
“I don’t need anything that grand. Even now, while I can’t kill them with curses, I can make them have nightmares every day and bleed them dry. What I want is to get back the person I love.”
Suddenly, Bell hugged Morbang, who was beside her.
“I’m going to put a soul inside a doll so they can live with me forever. To do that, I need to know the methods of sorcery… but I only know half of it, so it’s not perfect. All the sorcerers who knew it properly were hunted down in witch hunts and killed. I almost died back then, too.”
It was Ero who flinched again at her despondent voice. As serious conversations—the kind one might hear once in a lifetime—were exchanged, he suddenly wondered if it was okay for him to be part of this.
“Those people locked me in a mental hospital, claiming they were stripping away an evil spirit, and discarded the sorcery along with my darling’s soul. While they’re still using it themselves. How petty.”
“W-wasn’t something like witch hunts banned hundreds of years ago?”
Flustered by the chilling story, Ero asked haltingly. Then, Leonardo, who had been quietly observing, intervened calmly.
“On the surface, yes. But that’s nothing more than a deception.”
This time, all eyes turned to him. Leonardo began to speak as he poured golden juice from a glass bottle into a cup.
“The label of ‘witch’ has simply been changed to another name. The powerful still manipulate the hatred of the masses to control the majority and create scapegoats to remove their obstacles. That fundamental form still remains. It will likely continue into future generations, cunningly changing only the words.”
Bringing the cup to his lips, he moistened his throat and licked his lips. Then, resting his elbow on the table and leaning his chin on his hand, he looked at Orca beyond Ero and asked.
“Well, enough with the tragic stories. So, what if I need it too?”
Gillian, who had been tearing at a chewy piece of chicken skin with his hand, paused. Beatrice, hugged in Morbang’s arms, only rolled her eyes. Leonardo curled the corners of his mouth and gave a deliberately seductive smile.
“If I also need that Origin Stone, what will you do then? Will you offer it to me as a gesture of courtship?”
Ero, watching from right beside him, couldn’t help but freeze for a moment. It was because the words coming from those enchantingly beautiful lips felt utterly cruel. He thought it wasn’t something to say with a smile, taking someone’s emotions hostage, in front of people who had just poured out their heartfelt desires.
Perhaps receiving a similar impression, the eyes of the calm Orca also wavered slightly. His complexion darkened as if he were momentarily engulfed in agony. His eyes blinked slowly, looked down, and then looked up again.
“Why does the Lion desire it?”
Straight eyes met his. The gold eyelashes that had avoided him sank heavily, then rose following the yellowish lighting. Capturing the artificial brilliance like a fake sun in his eyes, Leonardo pushed back his hair and continued.
“…For the sake of the desires of everyone I carry.”
“Desires?”
No one could easily follow up. His statement, which felt abstract and grandiose, sounded incredibly solemn, as if his very life were on the line.
“For the sake of all the freedom being oppressed in this land.”
The high-saturation Gold Eyes shone vividly. A faint heatwave lurked around him. For a while, an uncomfortable silence flowed through the private room.
As the air itself sank heavily, Leonardo moistened his throat with juice again. Even so, he maintained a facade of leisure, curving his lips.
“Your answer?”
Orca, who maintained a perfect posture without a single slip, simply blinked slowly. He remained silent for a long time, as if carefully choosing his answer. Then, once he had reached a decision, he spoke with difficulty.
“I’m sorry, but I still cannot yield.”
“Why?”
Leonardo asked back, narrowing his eyes.
Hesitating, Orca replied.
“The connection with the Lion is important, but the lives and home of my pack, with whom I have built bonds over a long time, are more precious right now.”
“…….”
“And.”
As the words continued when Leonardo thought it was over, he stopped nodding. He wondered if there was something more, as the previous answer had already been sufficient.
As the Gold Eyes turned toward him as if listening intently, Orca continued.
“Within Ryan’s purpose, there is no Ryan.”