"Daniel... Daniel..."

At the word Vivi, Vivian kept saying Daniel's name.

He'd brushed past and gone like a soundless wind, and the memory of him made her chest ache.

They'd met by chance and been forced to part.

The memories that swung between life and death, mixed with hope and terror, were precious to her.

— Where are you? Have you been okay?

Daniel's voice was as soft and easy on the ear as ever.

He asked after her in French more precise than a Frenchman's.

In that instant, longing and the need to see him rose in her like a storm.

"I-I'm fine... And you, Daniel?"

She wasn't fine.

After she got home, her father had scolded her harshly.

The family's knights had been badly hurt because of Vivian.

Her punishment was the pain of being responsible.

In the meantime, she'd learned to handle a gun.

She'd mastered everything about the Assassins and how to fight them.

She'd been frantically busy.

And she'd realized all over again what an incredible man Daniel was.

Without a gun, he'd wiped out Assassins even knights had trouble with.

Questions came to her too.

She kept seeing the giant axe in the hands of Daniel, who'd had no weapon at all.

Daniel had lied to Édouard.

He'd definitely pulled the axe out of thin air, like a mage, and split the Assassins.

Daniel, a man with many secrets.

According to the information the butler, Sir Corin, had passed on, he was incredibly rich.

They'd judged him a man with unusual abilities.

She wanted to see him.

So the moment she got a phone, she contacted him.

— I'm doing fine. Where are you, Vivi? In France? Hasn't school started?

Daniel's voice was full of all the questions he'd been saving up.

"Not yet... I'm at home in France now. But Daniel. Are you free in two weeks?"

— Hm?

"I'm going to Hong Kong. Can you come?"

— Hong Kong? What's going on?

"My brother's getting married."

— When?

"Saturday at two in the afternoon, Hong Kong time. At St. Margaret's Church."

—…