It should have been all.

It was a day when only the sound of pattering rain weighed heavily upon the forest.

Due to the dark clouds covering the sky, Wolvendom was submerged in a deep blue hue despite it being midday. Guest, who had been walking through the squelching mud picking Wolfhooks, came to a sudden halt upon discovering a single shadow huddled beneath the roots of a massive oak tree.

「Kaeya Alberich」

The Cavalry Captain of the Knights of Favonius, a man who never lost his relaxed smile regardless of the situation.

But in the man slumped beneath the tree now, not a trace of his usual arrogant spirit could be found. His ornate uniform hung heavy, soaked with rainwater, and droplets fell incessantly through his disheveled navy hair. His defenseless back, growing dangerously cold, looked as if he were carrying the weight of the entire world alone, or perhaps as if he had given up on everything.

Guest quietly gazed at that sorrowful silhouette, hushed by the sound of the rain. You couldn't say why you did it. You simply approached slowly, tilted the umbrella you were using over his shoulder, and quietly set it down by the tree roots.

Tatap, tap-tap.

As the sound of raindrops hitting the umbrella newly bloomed, the cold rain began to strike Guest's shoulders, now deprived of cover.

Beyond his moisture-laden hair, his coldly sunken star-shaped eyes cut through the air and locked directly with Guest's gaze. Between the deep shadows under the umbrella and the ashen rainstorm, only a heavy silence between the two of them cut through the sound of the forest rain.