1. TLed from: https://www.wenku8.net/novel/2/2542/index.htm
2. V6c0: https://pastebin.com/EWw4Wmuy
3. V6c1v2: https://pastebin.pl/view/b38f34af
4. V6c2: https://pastebin.pl/view/ca4a2c68
5. V6c3: https://pastebin.pl/view/77554c44
6. V6c3v2: https://pastebin.pl/view/a49059cb (some small changes)
7. V6c3v3: https://pastebin.pl/view/5d958069 (title change)
8. V6c4: https://pastebin.pl/view/3d7f4bd1
9. V6c4v2: https://pastebin.pl/view/8192d44c (some small changes)
10. V6 Intermission https://pastebin.pl/view/a0d2ad4e
11. V6 Side Story: https://pastebin.pl/view/7315da5f
12. V6c5: https://pastebin.pl/view/9d2a6791
13.  
14.  
15. Final Chapter - The Scent Of That Day
16.  
17. This was the scent of a tree.
18.  
19. As the sunlight shone through the leaves and into the window, Alpha suddenly paused in the middle of organizing her documents and looked up.
20.  
21. She rose and walked over to the window. There was a huge roadside tree there, standing opposite its partner and spreading its canopy over the capital.
22.  
23. This was the end of autumn. The roadside trees were resplendent with bright red leaves and their fragrance wafted along on the wind.
24.  
25. Back then, she had always been surrounded by the warm scent of trees.
26.  
27. Alpha closed her eyes, and recalled the past.
28.  
29. They had all lived together back then. Amidst that nostalgic fragrance of trees—
30.  
31. ========================================================================
32.  
33. When Shadow Garden had been just Shadow and Alpha, Alpha had lived in the forest.
34.  
35. During the day, she was alone in a little house that he built.
36.  
37. The house was always filled with the scent of trees. He had built it himself, starting from scratch by cutting things down. Alpha had learned the secrets of the construction method called “Two By Four” from those days.
38.  
39. At first, all she could do was stand aside and watch. Later on, she helped out a little, and by the end, she had pretty much handled all the cleanup by herself.
40.  
41. It was a small house they had built together, him and her, filled with memories.
42.  
43. It might have been plain and even a little clumsy, but Alpha loved that little house that smelled of trees.
44.  
45. He would only come over in the middle of the night. And so Alpha looked forward eagerly to the coming of the night.
46.  
47. She practiced her mana control and swordsmanship during the day, as well as plucking mountain herbs and greens and trapping small animals.
48.  
49. At night, he would bring bread and meat, and Alpha would make them into dishes. Whenever they ate together, he would talk about all sorts of things.
50.  
51. “Steam has the power to move big chunks of steel and make them do work.”
52.  
53. One day, he mentioned something like that while eating Alpha’s stewed vegetables. Alpha carefully studied the vapor coming from the stew for a while.
54.  
55. No matter how she racked her brains, she still could not imagine how such feeble hot air could possess such great power.
56.  
57. However, everything he had said, however nonsensical it sounded, had turned out to be true. For instance, like how this world was not flat, but spherical, and how the sun did not spin around the earth, but instead it was the earth spinning around the sun. At first, Alpha felt it was impossible and denied them, but later events would prove him right.
58.  
59. Therefore, steam must possess some kind of great power.
60.  
61. “What should we do to get that kind of power out of steam?”
62.  
63. He briefly fell silent as he enjoyed Alpha’s cooking.
64.  
65. He was always thinking about what should and should not be said.
66.  
67. “Heating water produces steam. That produces great power. If you want a hint… Piston action and turbines.”
68.  
69. And with that, he smiled enigmatically.
70.  
71. He would never reveal everything all at once. Instead he would give hints and expect Alpha to think about it herself.
72.  
73. “But that’s not enough for me to understand it…”
74.  
75. This was much more difficult than the usual times. While she was planning to get up early in the morning to research steam, trying to find the answer with these hints alone would take too long.
76.  
77. “When you harness the power of steam, you can drive vast metal carriages and sail steel ships.”
78.  
79. However, what he gave were not hints, but examples of steam engines’ practical applications.
80.  
81. Being able to move such carriages and ships would be an incredible feat. Since he said it was possible, then it must be so.
82.  
83. “So you’re saying steam engines are worth investing all that time and money into them…”
84.  
85. He simply smiled enigmatically. He would always let Alpha think about things herself.
86.  
87. Imparting his knowledge to her in this way would train her thinking and problem-solving abilities.
88.  
89. Naturally, this led to her skills improving by leaps and bounds. In this way, she gained several times more knowledge than she would have when undergoing an elite education in her previous country.
90.  
91. Fighting strength was powerful. But wisdom was even more important than that.
92.  
93. Alpha had always thought she had been a smart child. Nobody could keep up with her in her home.
94.  
95. But even so, he — someone the same age as her — had far surpassed Alpha.
96.  
97. There was always someone better.
98.  
99. His profile seemed to glow as Alpha stared at him.
100.  
101. “Hm? Is something the matter?”
102.  
103. “Not at all.”
104.  
105. The two ate their stew, and then he taught her swordsmanship and magic. Before the sun went up, she watched him leave.
106.  
107. She would wave frantically to him every day, until she could no longer see him.
108.  
109. She was very happy.
110.  
111. ========================================================================
112.  
113. As the seasons passed, their time alone came to an end.
114.  
115. The silver-haired girl with a beauty mark, Beta, joined them.
116.  
117. Beta was very shy. She was a little afraid of him, and she always hid behind Alpha. Alpha knew Beta from back when they had been in their country, and Beta knew about Alpha too. But they were not friends; the extent of their relationship had been greeting each other at social occasions. However, they had been through the same thing together and they soon bonded.
118.  
119. After that, Gamma and Delta had joined them, and the little house that she had lived in by herself and which had been a little lonely became quite lively.
120.  
121. Alpha helped expand the house with the skills she had learned from him. They built a wonderful house, a warm home, full of the scent of trees.
122.  
123. One day, he finished up tutoring Delta and Gamma ahead of time, and then gathered everyone.
124.  
125. Delta proudly looked down on Gamma, while Gamma glared at Delta like she was going to cry. Par for the course.
126.  
127. “Delta is stronger than you.”
128.  
129. “I, I’m older than you… I’m the sempai… Uuu…”
130.  
131. “You’re pretty damn cocky, Gamma.”
132.  
133. “W-wait, s-stop…”
134.  
135. Delta pushed Gamma down and mounted her from behind. That too was an everyday sight.
136.  
137. Supposedly dogs would mount their social inferiors so they would understand their place.
138.  
139. “Alright, alright, that’s enough.”
140.  
141. Alpha separated the pair. Delta was always very obedient to Alpha. She always respected the superior-inferior relationship, for better or for worse.
142.  
143. That was why seeing Gamma, who was weaker than herself, as a superior annoyed her immensely.
144.  
145. Gamma was also very annoyed by Delta’s muscle-headed tendencies.
146.  
147. The two of them got along like chalk and cheese.
148.  
149. “Power is not merely strength. It has always been wisdom that rules people and the world.”
150.  
151. He said to everyone.
152.  
153. “Boss…?”
154.  
155. “Shadow-sama…”
156.    
157. Delta and Gamma looked up at him. Delta had a clueless expression on her face while Gamma seemed to be trying to seek salvation.
158.  
159. The wind brought the scent of trees.
160.  
161. “I’ll tell you then. This is the power to multiply the worth of a single gold coin many times over. The ways to control money, to rule the world’s economy…”
162.  
163. After that, he told them about banks and credit creation.
164.  
165. “That’s amazing…”
166.  
167. Alpha oohed and aahed like a child.
168.  
169. The frightening extent of his schemes and the sheer grandeur of their scale made Alpha tremble.
170.  
171. Beta hid behind Alpha, trembling out of fear of Shadow.
172.  
173. Delta twitched in her sleep from the cool night wind blowing on her.
174.  
175. And Gamma— Gamma trembled in awe.
176.  
177. Her empty, timid eyes once again shone with might.
178.  
179. “Shadow-sama, I… I’ve finally found my path.”
180.  
181. He simply nodded.
182.  
183. From that day forth, Gamma changed. She began coveting his knowledge and would continue reading and studying until she had to reluctantly go to bed.
184.  
185. Alpha and Gamma began speaking a lot more, and then Beta joined them in planning the future of their organization.
186.  
187. Soon, Epsilon, Zeta and then Eta had joined them.
188.  
189. Epsilon was a confident and competitive girl. She also had the skills to warrant those qualities.
190.  
191. “I’ll soon become number one!”
192.  
193. While she had been extremely competitive at first, she soon settled down and got along with everyone.
194.  
195. Although she knew that she and Beta often butted heads, that was probably a sign of their relationship.
196.  
197. Zeta was a beastgirl with a tragic past.
198.  
199. She spoke little and kept her distance from everyone.
200.  
201. Alpha knew about her, and so she often led her by the hand to form friendships with the other girls. Though it was only a little, she finally opened up her heart.
202.  
203. Her relationship with Delta was still bad, though. Granted, things were often this way between beastmen.
204.  
205. They could tell at a glance that “I won’t get along with him/her”. That sort of thing.
206.  
207. Eta was a mystery through and through.
208.  
209. While she often did a lot of strange things which caused lots of problems for everyone, her inventions often ended up helping everyone too.
210.  
211. Eta was bad at caring for herself, and so Epsilon took care of that. Beta and Gamma always ended up as her test subjects for some reason, while Delta and Zeta always fought. By the time she realized it, everyone had become irreplaceable members of her family.
212.  
213. They had all been very happy, in their house surrounded by the scent of trees.
214.  
215. From that day forth, Alpha had never stopped running.
216.  
217. She devoted all her strength to living, to the point that she didn’t even pay attention to the scent of the trees.
218.  
219. The madder-colored sunlight dyed the room a lovely color.
220.  
221. “Alpha-sama, it’s time.”
222.  
223. The knock on the door came, and Gamma entered.
224.  
225. “Do you remember? You and I would talk, surrounded by the fragrance of the trees…”
226.  
227. “The fragrance of the trees…?”
228.  
229. Gamma stood by Alpha, looking up at the towering roadside tree.
230.  
231. And then she slowly breathed in the scent carried by the wind and closed her eyes.
232.  
233. “Ah, it takes me back…”
234.  
235. “The dreams we had back then are slowly taking shape… But we’re still chasing our dreams, aren’t we?”
236.  
237. “...You’re right.”
238.  
239. “We shall carry on along the path we believe in and show no mercy to those who would stand in our way. Alright, let’s go.”
240.  
241. “Yes!”
242.  
243. They spent less time alone together now.
244.  
245. But the scent of the trees from that day would always remain in her heart.
246.  
247.  
248.  
249.