"What... what's going on...?"
As the dragon before them suddenly began radiating a brilliant light, Yukina and Yuiri froze in shock.
"This is..."
Even Rozen was momentarily stunned, a trace of bewilderment appearing on his face.
Within the light, the massive swamp dragon was healing its wounds while simultaneously shrinking in size.
Yes—shrinking.
Like a shifting silhouette, the so-called dragon—a relic of the Sinful God—transformed before their eyes, eventually taking on a humanoid form.
"Wha—"
Both Yukina and Yuiri gasped sharply.
"This—"
Rozen's face stiffened as well.
What appeared before them was a girl.
A girl even smaller than Yukina and Yuiri, younger-looking than Nagisa or Avrora, appearing to be around thirteen or fourteen years old. She had long, straight, ashen-gray hair that reached down to her ankles, and her delicate features gave her a pitifully charming appearance.
But that wasn't the most shocking part.
"..."
"..."
"..."
Rozen, Yukina, and Yuiri all stood frozen in place for different reasons, unable to move.
Meanwhile, the girl slowly opened her eyes.
Her pupils were an alluring iron-gray, like polished black jet stones.
Blinking those eyes, she gazed at the three of them as if she had just woken up—or perhaps just recalled something—and softly parted her lips.
"Dah?"
She let out an inexplicable sound.
"Dah?"
"Dah?"
"Dah?"
Faced with such an unreal sight, Rozen, Yukina, and Yuiri unconsciously echoed the sound, their expressions blank.
But seeing their reactions, the girl grew even more excited.
"Dah!"
With a cheerful cry, she leaped forward—and pounced straight at Rozen.
"Whoa—!"
Rozen finally let out a startled yell.
The reason? He instinctively reached out and caught her.
This caused him to lose his balance, slipping and falling onto the ground.
"Dah!"
The girl, however, was overjoyed, clinging to Rozen's neck, giggling.
"W-Wait! What are you—? Hold on! Stop squirming!"
Rozen panicked.
Even he couldn't remain calm in this situation.
Especially since, with the girl behaving like this, he could clearly sense several of the Servants within him widening their eyes in what seemed like outrage.
This sudden, absurd turn of events had truly thrown him off.
Yukina and Yuiri, too, stood stiffly as they watched the scene unfold. It wasn't until Rozen's flustered voice reached them that they snapped back to reality.
"Wh-What are you two doing...!?"
"H-Hurry up and let go!"
Yukina, looking frantic, and Yuiri, her face bright red, both lunged forward.
"Dah!"
The girl was easily separated from Rozen by Yukina and Yuiri, but she immediately switched targets, clinging to Yuiri instead and knocking her to the ground.
"Eek! Wait—!"
Now it was Yuiri's turn to panic.
The two girls tumbled together in a tangle.
"Phew..."
Rozen, finally freed, sat up—only to witness the scene before him.
Before he could react, his vision was blocked.
"Don't look, Senpai!"
Yukina covered his eyes from behind, her voice laced with barely restrained frustration.
"If you keep looking, Sekkaro might accidentally stab somewhere it shouldn't!"
Hearing this, Rozen's lips twitched, and he immediately stopped any thought of resisting.
At this moment, only one thought ran through his mind:
"What kind of ridiculous development is this...?"
Rozen was at a loss for words.
However, as he quietly resigned himself to the situation, he became acutely aware of another detail.
To cover his eyes, Yukina was pressing herself tightly against his back.
This only intensified the turbulent emotions swirling within him.
"You bastard..."
"Go die already..."
"Rozen-sama..."
The voices of Artoria [Alter] and Jeanne [Alter]—both dripping with barely contained fury—echoed in his mind, along with Serenity's resigned sigh.
And then...
"Senpai..."
Mash's complicated voice followed, piercing straight through Rozen's heart.
Rozen really wanted to shout out loud—
"This isn't my fault!"
Unfortunately, if women were capable of being reasonable, they wouldn't be women in the first place.
Even his usually understanding kouhai was acting like this—what else could he do but weep internally?
...
After what felt like an eternity, the chaos finally subsided.
When Rozen was finally "released" and his vision returned, what greeted him was Yuiri, her face bright red as she clutched her skirt defensively, and the girl—now wrapped in a cloak taken from one of the Knights of the Sinful God from The Cleansers—happily bouncing around.
"Y-You... didn't see anything just now, did you, Your Highness?"
Yuiri looked at Rozen with teary eyes, like a bullied puppy.
"...I saw nothing."
After a long silence, Rozen spoke with the guilt of a man who had just lied to the entire world.
"R-Really...?"
Whether she believed him or not, Yuiri let out a sigh of relief—though her face remained flushed.
Then, from beside Rozen, a cold voice cut in.
"Liar."
His kouhai's blunt words stabbed straight into his heart.
"Liar."
"Liar."
"Liar."
"Liar."
Inside him, four equally merciless voices echoed, twisting the knife deeper.
"Liar~ Liar~"
The cloaked girl, as if mimicking them, cheerfully hopped around—so energetically that the cloak threatened to slip right off.
"Y-You! Be more careful with your movements!"
Yuiri hurriedly grabbed her to keep her still.
The girl, however, seemed to adore Yuiri, wrapping her arms around her waist and giggling with pure delight.
Looking at her now, who would ever believe that this girl was the same dragon that had been wreaking havoc just moments ago?
Yet, that was the undeniable truth.
"Glenda~ Glenda~"
Humming like a song, the girl repeated what sounded like a name while clinging to Yuiri.
On this day, the dragon—the vessel that held the legacy of the God of Sin—was born into the world as a girl named Glenda.
And with her arrival, true chaos began to unfold.