[City Lord's Palace → Beatrix's Room]
Beatrix was sitting on the balcony connected to her room, using her laptop while seated on the couch. She looked focused and serious.
After finishing her work, she closed the laptop and left her room.
As she walked past her father's office, she heard him speaking angrily.
"What does this mean!!? The trees have gone mad!"
The well-built and heavily muscled man ended his call with the guards outside the house. As he stepped out and saw Beatrix standing in front of him, he spoke:
"What's going on?"
"Just two idiots getting drunk while on duty... This won't go unpunished. Such a fiasco has never happened before."
Beatrix walked behind her father and asked:
"I heard you mention something about trees?"
"The guard says there are three trees putting on a dance performance outside."
"!! That's a lot of alcohol! You don't need to concern yourself with this — I'll check on them myself."
"No, this is about home security. I have to take strict measures."
"Dad, you know I can handle this."
Beatrix stepped in front of her father, blocking his way. The man sighed and decided to give in to his daughter's insistence.
"Interrogate them after they wake up and tell me what you find."
---
[Ten minutes earlier]
"Getting past the wall isn't a problem, but there's a guard on every corner… I need to get their attention without making them alert to an intruder… Wait, what?! I need to distract them without raising an actual alarm… Damn, how do I do that?!"
Zeus was stuck in a dilemma for a while, then had a strange idea as he checked his belongings and found the glyph pen in his pocket.
Looking at the trees near the wall with a mischievous smile, Zeus crawled across the dirt between the grass and bushes until he reached the base of the first tree.
He wrote an energy-storage glyph and three continuous-motion glyphs on it.
Then he did the same to two other trees while backing away.
He had programmed specific movement instructions into the motion glyphs.
Indeed, the trees began to move, making enough noise to catch the nearby guard's attention.
The three small trees lined up beside each other, swaying left and right in a simple, almost creepy dance.
The guard's hands trembled as he quickly contacted the Lord of the Palace and called over his colleague.
As the second guard came to investigate, Zeus launched himself over the wall using a spinning disc, flying through the air and slipping inside through the gap left by the second guard.
Afterward, the trees returned to their exact previous positions, as if they had never moved at all.
---
[Present Time]
"My lady, I swear to you I'm in full control of my mind... those three trees started dancing! Look at the ground—there are still signs of where they moved!"
"You two will undergo lab tests to confirm your mental state. Head to the lab now."
The two guards hesitated, then decided not to argue—truth would come out eventually.
(Both guards, hesitantly in unison): "Yes, my lady."
Beatrix returned to the mansion. After redistributing the guards' patrol zones to cover for the missing two, she decided to go back to her room and get some sleep.
Only to be stunned by the sight of Zeus washing his hands and face at her sink.
"!!"
"I had to crawl on the ground to get in here."
"!!"
"Why haven't you been answering my calls? Didn't you say we were close friends? Is this how you ignore your comrades? What if something urgent happened? Look at the log—I called you more than ten times."
"!! What do you think you're doing barging into my room like this!? Are you tired of living!? Couldn't you think of a better way to commit suicide?"
"!! Come on! I was going to knock, but I saw you leave with your dad, so I figured I'd wash my face while I waited. I wouldn't have come in otherwise!"
"Why did you come here?"
Zeus finished drying his face and hands with a towel and looked around.
"Everything's white… I, unlike you, love the color black."
"Why did you come here?"
"I didn't see you at the party, so I decided to come see you here."
"Why are you doing this?"
"Doing what?"
"Have you regained your memories?"
"No."
"Then to you, I should be a stranger… someone you don't know. Why do you care about seeing me?"
Zeus noticed the tears gathering in her eyes. He frowned and answered in a somber tone.
"When I first woke up in the hospital bed, I met several people who were strangers to me. Some of them made me feel happy just by seeing them, without knowing why. And some gave me an unexplainable sense of dislike. But when I saw you, I felt something specific… without knowing when or why."
Beatrix remained silent, though a single tear streamed from her bright black iris.
"I knew you meant a lot to me from the very first moment I saw you… I even felt like I'd be willing to sacrifice myself for you. That's why I asked if we were in a relationship before."
Beatrix smiled and chuckled briefly through her sadness, then replied with confidence:
"We weren't… So why are you crying now?"
"! Who, me!? Damn it, since when!?"
Beatrix suddenly hugged Zeus tightly and asked in a quiet voice:
"Do you really not remember me?"
Zeus placed his right hand on her head and held her close too. His tears began to fall more heavily without him realizing it.
"I'm sure a part of me remembers you very well… Will you help me get my memories back?"
"If that'll remind you of the lessons I used to teach you, I'm more than ready to do that."
"!!" (Zeus laughed loudly, only to get a light punch to the stomach.) "What!!?"
"Keep your voice down!! If my father finds out you snuck into the palace, you're in big trouble!"
"Then how about we leave? You could take me to places we used to go, or spots with shared memories?"
"It's late now. I think it's best you leave. I'll see you tomorrow at the base—we can go afterward."
Zeus smiled and gently wiped the tears from Beatrix's face, only to get a light slap on the hand.
"Now go… Don't treat me like a little girl."
"Even now, you're still thinking logically!"
Beatrix pulled Zeus by the ear toward the balcony, then shut the glass door and closed the curtains.
Zeus leaned against the railing, pulled out another cigarette Surai had given him, and lit it, taking a deep breath.
On the other side, Beatrix leaned her back against the door and smiled.
After lighting the cigarette, Zeus quickly scribbled a few words on the glass door, knocked on it, then jumped away.
Beatrix opened the curtains, ready to scold him for not leaving, but then she noticed the message written on the glass:
< Your smile is beautiful >
"!!"
Then she heard a guard shouting:
"You there! Identify yourself!"
"!! Damn it."
Beatrix rushed outside to see Zeus flying awkwardly over the wall while a guard chased after him. The guard reached the wall and jumped over it.
Beatrix quickly contacted the guards before they could call her father, then began giving them false orders to chase the intruder—so Zeus could escape the area safely.