A strange rumor was going around Wiesenheim's Infected settlement, Afterglow: dying Infected were, one by one, growing stronger. At first listen, it sounded like good news.

Rhodes Island Operator Hibiscus came to investigate this 'recovery,' but the moment she arrived, a stranger among the Infected grabbed her for an impromptu waltz. Before she knew it, she found herself present when a mysterious young noble met a wandering cellist.

That both of them carried a fragment of the dead tyrant's melody within their bodies — and what would happen if those melodies ever met — no one knew yet.

1. A Noble Crashes an Unpaid Audition

Czerny is the only star musician Afterglow has ever produced. The audition for the ensemble piece at his farewell concert — held despite his failing health — offered no prize money at all, yet the line of applicants stretched out since dawn.

Andante, mentioning that it happened to be the day of Czerny's street performance, dragged Hibiscus to the front of the Hall of the Red Sunset. When Count Gertrude's servant appeared to try to stop the performance, Czerny shot back without hesitation.

Tell Gertrude to stop meddling in other people's business and worry about her own.

— Czerny

Kreide, the wandering cellist desperate for money to cover medical bills, found out too late but couldn't back down. He had promised his ailing grandfather he would only submit his application and come right back.

He submitted his application without even a cello, and a strange young noble standing nearby suddenly cut in.

The young man introduced himself as Ebenholz and asked to duet on flute, on the spot. For no reason other than a chance connection, an unregistered noble and a penniless cellist became a team.

Of course, they failed the first audition spectacularly. Czerny spotted their habit of cutting corners with uncanny precision, and a bruised Ebenholz seethed with wounded pride. Still, thanks to Kreide covering for him, they earned a chance to try again.

2. The Demon Panic — Culprit: A Rhodes Island Operator

As it turned out, it was Hibiscus who stirred up Afterglow. A strange prophecy had been circulating among the Infected: 'When the demon sets foot in the twilight, worms will rise from the dark, and calamity will steal away the last sunlight.'

Hibiscus, being Sarkaz, was instantly branded that 'demon.' A drunken mob of Infected surrounded her, and Andante alone was hopelessly outnumbered.

The only casualty was Kreide's cello, smashed to pieces — but when Czerny heard what happened, he actually opened up to them. At the next day's practice, one line from him cut straight to Ebenholz's core.

It's not that you lack skill — it seems more like you're insisting you simply don't want to.

— Czerny

Czerny's distant relative Ursula was there too. Thanks to this sharp-eyed old woman who ran the household, the state of Czerny's health — which everyone had been keeping quiet — slowly began to leak out.

3. Expedition to Glyphipatio — One Cello and a Spoonful of Friendship

They'd nearly cleared the pass line, but Kreide's cello was already junk. Ebenholz took him all the way to the noble district of Glyphipatio and bought him a top-of-the-line cello — even getting into an argument with a clerk who took issue with their clothes.

On the way back, Kreide brought up the Sankta teacher who had taught him cello. He said that since faces tend to blur with time, he chose one keepsake for each person he wanted to remember.

When asked what keepsake he'd choose for Ebenholz, Kreide laughed and said he hadn't decided yet. At the time, it was truly a trivial little promise.

Meanwhile, Hibiscus kept up her investigation and ran into more hostility. This time, café owner Bigler stepped in to smooth things over. His smile looked friendly enough, but something about him left no room for openings.

That evening, everyone gathered at the Rhodes Island office for dinner. With Ursula helping out and Hibiscus serving up a healthy meal, everyone had something to add. Kreide laughed that eating together like this felt just like family.

Hibiscus suddenly brought up her younger sister Lava, back on the mothership. She's bad at expressing herself and always causing some kind of trouble, Hibiscus said, but still a good kid at heart. At those words, Ebenholz quietly turned the word 'family' over in his mind.

4. Passing the Audition — But the Patron Seems Suspicious

After the retest, the two of them finally cleared Czerny's minimum bar. But behind the Hall of the Red Sunset, patron Count Gertrude was secretly preparing something with her subordinates.

That night, Gertrude quietly called Ebenholz — who was suffering from headaches — and dropped a truth on him: the unidentified melody inside his body, the 'Worldly Note,' was actually inside Kreide's body too.

If they caused a resonance through their duet and transferred the melody to Kreide, Ebenholz could shed his noble title and be free, she said. In exchange, Kreide would……

There's nothing to worry about. I'll take care of him in a suitable way.

— Gertrude

Ebenholz couldn't answer on the spot. The word 'freedom' — something he'd never heard directed at himself before — was sweet, but the moment Kreide's name was mixed into it, his stomach turned all the more. All he could do was ask for time to think.

5. The True Cause of the Pseudo-Recovery Was Us All Along

Hibiscus's investigation pointed to the same place. The 'Pseudo-Recovery' — where the Infected looked fine outwardly while their disease progressed faster inside — had its point of origin in Kreide, and Ebenholz was the one amplifying it.

At Hibiscus's warning to leave at once, Ebenholz simply fled. Even knowing that cooperating with Gertrude's plan would make things easier, this time, he refused it.

As he fled, old memories burst open in his mind — starting from the moment at five or six years old when he was dragged to the old tower and told he was the last of the 'Witch King's' bloodline.

Every day he learned hymns praising Her Majesty the Empress, never allowed a single step outside the old tower, trained from childhood to wield that power with ever greater precision. The promise that he could live freely had been a lie from the very start.

6. There Was No Paradise Where He Fled

It was none other than Kreide who laid the unconscious Ebenholz down. From the sound of a distant cello, he recovered a melody he had forgotten.

Only then did Kreide's memories return too — the experiments, the dead, the Witch King's remnants…… and now, this person before him.

Thinking back, Kreide too had wandered aimlessly since childhood. Ever since he learned that staying near anyone too long made their condition worse, he and his grandfather had drifted from town to town, working hard never to grow close to anyone.

Both of them were survivors of that horrific experiment. It's no one's fault, Ebenholz apologized over and over.

7. The Originium Slug Panic — The Cello's Last Audience

Wandering Afterglow alone, Ebenholz spotted the person spreading the prophecy and secretly tailed them into the sewers. There, the one who revealed his true identity was none other than Bigler — not a café owner, but a spy taking orders from the Empress.

After a scuffle, the mastermind got away, but the agitated swarm of Originium Slugs poured out of the sewers. Their gas, far more toxic to the Infected, began to blanket Afterglow. In the middle of that chaos, the sound of Kreide's cello was drawing the slugs in.

Kreide intended to burn away along with the swarm. If his very existence brought disaster, he thought, then that would be better.

Now that you're here…… I guess I won't get the chance, after all.

— Kreide

Ebenholz stopped him, all but pulling him into an embrace. And for the first time, the two of them laid bare their past lives to each other, holding nothing back.

A summer when he couldn't take off his soot-stained clothes for half a month. A day he nearly got locked in a basement. It was a night with nothing to apologize for and nothing to be apologized to over — simply a night of coming to know one another.

8. A Duel Fought With Sincerity on the Line

Once he'd collected himself, Ebenholz went straight to Gertrude to settle things. But the Hall of the Red Sunset had already been converted, top to bottom, into an amplification device — and the negotiation ended in a duel.

Ebenholz won, but Bigler said there wasn't enough evidence to arrest Gertrude on the spot. That was when Kreide's grandfather appeared and produced a single stolen page of a plan.

It was written there that among the melody fragments the Witch King left behind from his experiments, the last remaining vessels were Ebenholz and Kreide. Czerny made up his mind on the spot: he would draw out both their melodies with a piece of his own composition, and if need be, offer up his own body as a third vessel.

Your sacrifice can sometimes become a burden to the other person, you know. Cry out, howl if you must, and claim the dignity that is rightfully yours!

— Czerny

The piece he completed through a sleepless night was titled 《Light and Shadow》. Coughing up blood, Czerny still didn't let go until the very last note.

9. Light and Shadow — The First and Last Stage

On the day of the concert, it turned out Gertrude had converted the entire hall into an amplification device. Her goal wasn't disruption — it was proof. Proof that this power was beyond anyone's control.

As the piece reached its climax, Kreide's melody spun out of control. While Hibiscus scrambled to evacuate the audience, Kreide decided to draw both melodies entirely into his own body.

As his body became covered in Originium crystals, Kreide began to transform into something resembling the Witch King — even as, in that voice, he announced the final piece.

We met again, became friends again, and even gave a wonderful performance on stage! So there's no way we can be unhappy, right?

— Kreide

Where the shell collapsed, only a fading Kreide remained. To the very end, he asked Ebenholz not to cry for him, but to smile.

Then you'll be able to stand tall and say — I lived another fulfilling day today…… like that.

— Kreide

Watching it all from a distance, Bigler muttered bitterly to himself. He'd always thought friendship and sacrifice were nothing but childish wordplay — but at least, he thought, there would be someone to cry for these three.

Afterward, Afterglow

Gertrude fell into the trap she herself had dug and was caught by the spy, Bigler. The revenge she'd finally grasped after fifteen years of being manipulated became, in the end, the rope that tightened around her own neck. Instead of arresting Kreide's grandfather, Bigler took him to his own café and treated him to a cup of coffee.

Afterglow was allowed to remain as it was, thanks to a word from the Empress, and Czerny, having barely survived, began a new fight on behalf of the Infected. Andante, meanwhile, began considering a transfer in the wake of it all.

Back on the mothership, Hibiscus was met with a scolding from her sister Lava first thing. Seeing Lava tear up over how reckless she'd been, Hibiscus had no choice but to promise to be more careful.

Count Urtica, Ebenholz, disappeared. In his place, an Operator named 'Ebenholz' joined Rhodes Island.

Afterglow was originally named for how the Infected's remaining time was as brief as a sunset's glow. But now, hearing this name, it sounds instead like a promise that those who remain will go on playing music for those who have died.

And that music was something that could begin again anywhere, as long as there was one cello and one old flute.