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A Nameless Flower Blooming in the Ruins
From between the paving stones, a white flower had pushed its face into the open.
The great hall of the Demon King's castle—the place where the throne of terror had once stood, where countless monsters had knelt—was now home to nothing but the wind passing through. Part of the ceiling had collapsed, and the afternoon light slanting in through the gap set the particles of dust slowly dancing.
Elena knelt and peered down at that small white flower.
"How unusual," she murmured. Even for her—uncommonly for a mage, poor in her knowledge of plants—it was clear that this flower had no business blooming in this land. The mana sleeping deep beneath the Demon King's castle still warped the soil even now, a hundred years on, refusing to let ordinary grasses and trees take
