… What is happening?
“We will be meeting with Belzac soon, at least according to the kids. Funnily enough, the location of his shrine is below where I was born.”
“Oh really? … Oh shit! Sorry! Now that I think about it, I think I remember your garm mother mentioning something like speaking with her ancestor or something! I should have told you that sooner!”
“Hmm? Do not worry about it. You know I have not cared about my garm family until the kids got into trouble with Belzac. At least you kept your promise to my garm mother by protecting me up until now, right?”
Those were the last things I spoke with Hestia before my group departed from the subspace and into the area beneath the Belzac garm’s ancestral grounds. There, I found the stone statue depicting the S rank [Three-Eyed Fenrir] Belzac.
The voice of a growly old man entered my mind, addressing Hanazawa and Tatsuya first, thanking them for their help in bringing me here. The four onnikai garms in Hanazawa’s possession then left her and returned to the statue, orbiting him like moons. He then said something to me, though I couldn’t seem to recall what he said right now.
Argh, my head.
My memory was still swimming from the encounter, and the next thing I could remember properly was the sight of a darkened forest, dark to the point it would be impossible for a normal person to see. I couldn’t find the sun or the moon. There was just no light. Thank goodness, [True Wolven Instincts] and [Night’s Caress] were working. My night vision was working well for me.
But even with night vision, the lack of light is making it very hard to navigate. I can’t look too far away.
I couldn’t find my students. Tatsuya, Kyouya, and Hanazawa weren’t around when I woke up. I have been wandering around this place, not only for my own safety, but to find my students. Anxiousness and trepidation. The fear of the unknown. I couldn’t sense any living beings inside this place outside of myself.
In addition, I couldn’t transform back into my wolfkin form. I remembered being in my wolfkin form when I met Belzac, but I woke up here in my original fenrir body. [Humanize] wasn’t working even though my other skills and spells were.
I could generate stygian electricity, my dark elemental spells were working, and my body’s flexibility and function were working well enough. Oh, its seems that I couldn’t summon my [Storage Magic] at all either. What was this place? Where was I?
…
How long have I been in this place? My sense of time was completely ruined by the lack of sun and this dark maze.
…
I looked over at one of the trees, suddenly noticing some smoke coming from its roots. I went closer and covered my right paw with [Shadow Armament], reaching out to grab it. The sensation was similar to touching a shadow — formless and fragile like pudding, but as soft and smooth as water. I pulled on it, ripping the whole tree out of the ground and throwing it away. I looked down, only to see a hole.
These are shadows. Belzac did something. I just don’t know what.
Without [Shadow Armament], I couldn’t pull any of these trees out of the ground, confirming my thoughts even more. If I were to put this clue and the whole night and darkness aspect of this place into question, then Belzac had to have done this. Considering I couldn’t [Humanize] oruse [Storage Magic], this couldn’t be reality.
Well, at least, that was what I believed. This was all probably an illusion, but how was I supposed to break it? Looking at it objectively, and with how I’ve been wandering this place for a while now, it was obviously to trap me. Searching for an exit was making me restless and impatient, so I had to calm down a bit.
In a situation like this, I had to think of my next move thoroughly.
Belzac invited me through Hanazawa and Tatsuya, and even welcomed us, according to my memories. Was he antagonistic? I questioned using my fenrir instinct, or in other words, my gut feeling. No, I don’t dislike him, nor do I feel any hostility towards him. At least, it doesn’t feel right to think of him like that. Apprehensive, maybe, but only because I was a bit afraid of meeting him. Or, to be more specific, confront my fenrir heritage.
A whole year had passed since I was reborn into this world. My memories and thoughts of my mother were slowly becoming less and less important to me, as hard as it was to admit. Being with Hestia and Aurora has eased my mind a lot. Suffice to say, I had stopped worrying so much about something I couldn’t influence.
Of course, there was a part of me feeling guilty about dying before my Mother, and how my death probably would have affected her. Regardless, thinking about it rationally, was use was it? I died; end of the story. Outside of Hestia getting Aurena to also send me back to Earth, what else was there for me to do?
Get stronger.
That was all I could do. To protect my new family and friends, and also make sure Hestia’s Quest ends well, all so I could get that chance. Whether my Mother was alive or not wasn’t my problem, at least not for now. I had to think forward, towards my future, and what I had to do.
And one of those things was to find a way to become stronger. Find a way to overcome my limitations as I did in the past. Just as Hestia and Tasianna grew, so must I. And, for that reason, I agreed to come with Hanazawa and Tatsuya to meet Belzac. Not only to help my students and act responsibly, but also to learn from an S rank in my bloodline. Just as Hestia did.
I came in front of Belzac to finally learn what [Belzac’s Successor] actually meant.
That’s right. What did Ilsaphone say again?
The reward for the Divine Quest Ilsaphone issued to me was three things. First, a single level up. Very kind and needed. Second, a blessing from Edna, the Goddess of Monsters and Fertility as well as the wife of the God of Darkness. If I remembered correctly, I had lost the two “Watched” titles and gained a new one — a blessing.
By the divine System, individual [Young Stygian-Scaled Fenrir, Saori Segawa] has lost these titles: [Watched by Edna] [Watched by Ilsaphone]
By the divine System, individual [Young Stygian-Scaled Fenrir, Saori Segawa] is granted the title: [Ambassador of Grim]
Right. That was the System message I remembered. Curiously, my new title was pretty close to Belzac’s nickname, the Harbinger of Grim.
Hold on, when did I learn that information? From a book? No, I wasn’t that interested in Belzac, even before I came here. Did I learn that from the kids or from the wolf himself?
There apparently were some holes in my memories. It felt like a hangover with how hard it was to recall events.
Nevertheless, that wasn’t important. Back to topic, the last reward was information on Belzac’s intentions from Ilsaphone’s mouth. She was as truthful as you could get with something like this. At least, I didn’t think she would want to trick me considering what her goal was supposed to be. Or, maybe I was just naive.
Now, what did she say again?
“Belzac wants you to become the first of his descendants to unlock the full power of [Belzac’s Successor]. If you don’t know yet, titles aren’t exactly easy to receive without specific conditions. The easiest method is to get them from a god. And, upon his death, Belzac made a deal with my mother, Edna. Essentially, [Belzac’s Successor] is the first, still juvenile, form of my mother’s blessing on the Belzac bloodline.”
Belzac became Edna’s Champion in his last moments, when he asked her to keep his soul from reincarnating before his wish for revenge was fulfilled. Through his service to Marsven when he fought and resealed Klea’Hatma when she broke out from the dwarven ruins, it was easy for the Night Goddess to accept his plea.
Instead of being the one to receive the blessing, it was his descendants who did. It was essentially a similar situation to Hestia and her Kargryxmor bloodline. That was also the reason why [Belzac’s Successor] had such an incredible bonus in the form of increased experience and skill proficiency gain.
Belzac's Successor
A title given to a descendant of Belzac that is destined to be the next Belzac. Boosts experience gain and skill proficiency gain. Increases Dark Elemental resistance and proficiency, while also improving the effectiveness of Dark Elemental spells. As a descendant of the mystical three-eyed Fenrir, Belzac, the possessor gains heightened parameters, when fighting with other of its pack
It was to make us stronger so we could do what Belzac and Edna wanted.
“Belzac wants revenge on the people who killed him after he was weakened by his fight with Klea’Hatma. The humans and elves at that time. Like an angered onnikai, he cursed their leaders with his dying breath. Humans die quite easily, but the elves are more resilient to the passage of time. Two of three have died already during battles, but the last is currently still alive.”
How funny that Klea’Hatma was once again involved in all of this. Close to Rashan village in the Greenveil duchy was a set of dwarven ruins we, Aurora, had to delve into in order to solve an onnikai problem. There, we found a mural displaying Belzac’s fight against Klea’Hatma, and was also the place where we found the latter imprisoned in a catalyst.
Then again, if he hadn’t fought Klea’Hatma in the first place, he probably could have continued living and become an SS rank, maybe even stronger. So, Marsven was also at fault for leaving Klea’Hatma alive. Ilsaphone even agreed with my point.
Nevertheless, concerning Edna’s side of the story, Ilsaphone refused to say anything about that, as the reward only involved information on Belzac. A shame.
Hold on, wasn’t there something else?
“Of course, Belzac has more things he wants you to do, but you can hear it from the spirit himself. They aren’t too important, really. Just know that Belzac will welcome you with open arms, so be nice. Oh right, he also told me something about how you had to procreate to make sure his bloodline doesn’t go extinct.Well, the onnikai-possessed garms do have his blood, so its not like everything rests on your shoulders. However, since you are the strongest living Belzac wolf, he will try to ask you to have a lot of sex—”
Yeah, okay! Okay! Let’s forget that part! Not like I needed to remember something as silly as that. Goodness, gracious!
To conclude from that, I was doubly blessed by Edna at this point, although [Belzac’s Successor] wasn’t that important to talk about. And second, Belzac actually wasn’t the enemy here. In other words, this had to be a test.
Should have figured this out sooner, then again, maybe that is the reason for my foggy memory?
However, even after calming my mind down to the point I felt nothing but annoyance at how this test was constructed, I still had no clear way to solve this puzzle. Logically, the best way to find the exit was to hang onto any clues I could find. The one I found the most intriguing was the black mist coming from that one tree from before.
Got it.
I broke apart a sizable chunk of the shadow tree I pulled out and channeled lightning through it, before sticking it into the earth, right next to the hole. With [Shadow Armament], I could manipulate any shadows I wanted, so, I turned this piece of wood into a lightning conductor. It would endlessly channel my lightning, giving me a landmark to return to. Sound was the best sense to use in this place, as seeing in this abyss was too hard.
I began exploring the forest once again, this time with a more realizable objective. At first, I couldn't find any more smoking trees, so I began tearing off two from the ground to see if the first was a fluke or not. Strangely, none of them had a hole underneath them.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
So, to make sure, I returned to the landmark, following the sizzling and crackling of the electricity. I placed my leg into the hole, testing if there was some other clue or not. I used [Shadow Dash], sinking my paw directly into it like a shadow. Having made sure there was nothing there, I delved my head into the shadow and began looking around in this “shadow world.”
Once again… nothing.
This wasn’t the actual shadow world. It had the same interior like the usual, which was just blackness, really. However, the real one would always have a light showing through a hole, showing you where the shadow you wanted to teleport to was. Even if the other side was inside the darkest room of the world, there would always be this one indicator!
However, I could not see one. It was similar to the many other tries I performed before. Without a light, it was impossible to use [Shadow Dash] effectively. I would just go lost in the shadow world. It was discouraging to see this hole didn’t have any further answers, but at the very least I knew these smokey trees had something important.
Sighing once more, I began my search anew. There was no reason to give up. I just have to trust in what Ilsaphone told me. There was a way out of this, and I would find it. Still, even if my will was strong to start with, the more I wandered around fruitless, the more my motivation wavered.
Eventually, the sound of my electric landmark vanished. Did I go too far, or did it just stop streaming the lightning? I wasn’t sure. I didn’t care, honestly. I was just getting more and more mentally fatigued. If this was a test, then what was Belzac even testing me for, huh? My walking ability?
[“Uno! Song! Sarasa! Quatre! Varya! Shere! Ajay! Shoyi! Can any of you hear me?!”] I tried calling for my shadow pack. I could feel they were alive, I knew they weren’t dead, but I couldn’t feel them in my shadow nor close by.
This was infuriating. Was that smoke actually a fluke? If so, then I was back to square one! No, even worse! I got my hopes up and landed on a “get fucked” square!
Fuck!
I slammed the ground, accidentally letting a jolt of electricity escape as I lost my temper. Catharsis. A very needed one, honestly. Losing my sense of time and direction while putting me into this weird place was making me scratch my head. I could not understand Belzac’s motives.
Maybe it’s best if I just destroy this place, better than just standing around and— Huh?
The sound of electricity, and it was near. No, it was even closer than this, it came from underneath my belly. Was it my fur? No, I wasn’t letting my mana go wild after the slam I did before. I haven’t heard the lightning landmark for a while now, and I was sure the sound couldn’t just appear out of nowhere like this.
So where was that sound coming from exactly? In this darkness, it was hard to see, but I saw a few bolts of lightning surging on the ground.
That couldn’t be right. Even if my stygian lightning wasn’t like normal electrical energy, that didn’t mean it could continue acting around on the ground — the earth. Insulators and conductors were still a thing, and basic physics rules still applied to it, with a few new additions.
For example, my lightning could still flow through metal well, but had a harder time with something like rocks and other raw minerals. However, due to the effects of [Lightning Shadow] in [Stygian Voltage], my lightning could also stream through any shadows.
… Of course! Why didn’t I think about that earlier? This whole place was one big shadow!
That smoke actually was a clue. It drew my attention and had me use [Shadow Armament] to manipulate the shadow tree and pull it out. What did I do afterwards? Pull out more trees. The whole [Shadow Dash] part was still confusing to me, but if the ground was a shadow, then that meant I could control it.
I covered my entire front legs in shadows and bore my claws right into the ground. As if it was butter, tearing through the earth was easy enough and it didn’t seem like anything was around to fix the crevasse I just created. For some reason, I felt good about this. It seemed like I finally had a clear path forward.
Continue!
I cast [Dark Tendrils] from two trees and had them grab me around my torso, having them act as a safety harness in case all this did was make me fall into an even deeper abyss. Better to be safe. Once I made sure of this aspect, I began digging, throwing away shadow earth like any other dog.
[“—pha! —e up!”]
I heard something. Something else but my own thoughts! This singular moment was enough for me to continue this process with even more fervor! I dug as if my life depended on it! Until—
[“Alpha!”]
[“Uno!”]
My scarred garm’s head suddenly appeared from the ground, calling out my name before he grabbed my leg with his tendrils, pulling me right into the hole.
Alerted by this, my first reaction was to activate the harness around my body to pull me back out, but for some reason, the [Dark Tendrils] dissipated into the air. With nothing holding me back, Uno kept dragging my body even deeper into this darkness… until a light appeared.
My body began feeling lighter. The light blinded me, and in the next moment, Uno was gone and I was in what appeared like a house; an apartment. I noticed I had transformed back into my humanized form, but none of my wolfkin features could be found. I was in my [Humanized Lv. 10] form — a complete human.
Where is the System message?
Strangely, this transformation was done without my consent. I didn’t activate it and, for some reason, a System message didn’t appear. The Divine System was consistent. This shouldn’t happen.
No, wait, forget about that. Where am I now?
First, I was in a forest of pure blackness. Now, I was inside a standard flat. From the look of the tatami mat and how I was laying inside a futon, this had to be from Japan. I push myself up, acting as if I had just woken up.
“Wha—?!” Something fell onto the ground, drawing my attention and freezing me into place. “G-Goma-kun?”
I picked up the black-white dog plushie up, staring at the stitched-up left ear. Now that I remembered, Father had nearly torn off my husky plushie’s ear when I was still a kid. It was his present to me when we went on a family skiing trip in my childhood.
I cried like a storm when I saw Goma-kun’s stuffing sticking out from where his ear was. Mother quickly sewed it up for me, but even then, I was still quite sad since the stitches could be seen. Only after father told me about how scars were medals of deeds did I finally stop crying. Such a childish reasoning, but I bought it up like cupcakes.
I embraced the little husky plush, holding it tightly to my chest. The sensation of his fur touched my arm, causing my eyes to suddenly water.
I missed you.
Adulthood was stressful. When I was still a teen, I had quite a few plushies inside my room, just to give me a place to destress after all the work I had to do for my graduation and college entrance exams. However, after my father died and I was forced to work while attending college, the amount of toys I had around decreased purely because I needed something to let all the built-up stress out on.
Eventually, only Goma-kun survived. Named after sesame seeds since he was white and black, I cherished him too much to throw him away. Every time I looked at his injured ear, my father’s face came back to my mind. Why was he here? I had already forgotten about him during my stay in Peolynca.
You and Uno have a lot in common… If he’s here, then that means this is my room?
I looked around, noticing the messy desk in the corner, swamped with papers and books. There was always more to do for my job as a teacher, since not only did I have to help out my colleagues and prepare for my classes, but also had to help my students as needed. Outside of the rest of the apartment, I rarely fully cleaned my own room.
On the other end of the room was my sewing machine and kit, a skill I learned from Mother, which had helped me a lot in Peolynca. Fashion magazines and other materials I needed to keep up with the fashion world were scattered around, although with how our financial situation was, looking up fancy and beautiful clothes was always just indulging a dream. How wonderful that I was able to become more or less a seamstress in Peolynca.
However, even in the face of all of this, I still only had a single question—
Where am I?
I stood up and walked over to the door, where I noticed a thick book about traveling the world. It had many interesting tidbits on traveling and what to look out for, especially towards countries with a more “divisive” culture.
I left my room and went into the living room. Our apartment was small, so there were only two bedrooms, a living room, and a bathroom. Then again, it probably was larger than what you would find in the main districts of Tokyo, but for my home city, Yokohama, this place still had a pricey rent.
Hmm? What is this smell?
This was strange. I was hearing something happening in the kitchen. The sound of sizzling oil and the scent of herbs and spices welcomed me into the room, drawing me closer to it until I saw somebody there I never expected.
“O-Okaa-san?!”
It was my mother.
“Hmm? Saori-chan? Why are you already awake? It’s only five.”
That was right. I always woke up at 5:30 am. Not only to prepare for my own breakfast, but also for my mother, since she was ill, not only physically but mentally, after Father’s death. After I was done, I would prepare for my trip to work and take the next earliest train to Tokyo, where Shiroko High School was.
Mother had never cooked after the tragedy. Her cooking an omelet all while looking at me as if I shouldn’t be awake right now, not only shook me to the core but caused my already watery eyes to let tears fall down my face again. Not only from nostalgia, but also ‘cause one of my earnest wishes came true.
“Oh! Why are you crying? Did something happen at work yesterday?” Mother rushed up to me, caressing my face and wiping the tears off my cheeks.
Her black hair, still unkempt from sleeping, had lost its luster and had strands of white, a result of years of lack of care and stress. She would still bath and clean herself, but she was mostly unmotivated when it came to proper skin and hair care. It also didn’t help that we also had to be more conservative with our money.
However, even with all of that, her face was exactly how I remembered it, but with more emotions. She always had a deadpan expression whenever I wasn’t around and would always force herself to smile. She was heartbroken from father’s death. And, although I understood it, I sometimes wished I could shout and tell her to get over it already. Watching her wither away pained me.
So, seeing her so lively, rushing towards me with a worried face tugged on my emotions.
“… Nothing.” I embraced her for a moment, causing her to giggle. “What are you cooking? Are you sure you haven’t gone rusty, Okaa-san?”
“Oh!” She pushed out of my hug and frowned jokingly at me. “Don’t say that to your mother. I thought I had raised you better. Go ready the table, and wait for me to remind you from whom you learned how to cook!”
The both of us chuckled. How long has it been since we joked like this?
Breakfast was simple. Steamed rice, omelet, miso soup, seaweed salad with sesame seeds, and a grilled filet of salmon. With a warm oolong tea, Mother’s favorite, to finish it off, this was as standard as you could get. In a way, I missed something normal like this.
We ate together.
Enjoying the food and talking about some mundane stuff was fun to me. How long has it been since I had done this with my mother? Instead of frowning whenever I entered my mother's room, we were both smiling and laughing. It felt like we were a family again. The burdens of the past, gone.
Even if all we talked about was my work, I kept telling her everything that happened since I became a teacher at Shiroko High. How I stumbled and felt overwhelmed by the fact my first job was to become a homeroom teacher for high schoolers with parents who probably had the money to hire a hitman to kill me if I fuck up their children. Or, how the stress of having to earn money for our medical bills forced me to become the perfectionist Hanazawa accused me of being.
I had to be a perfect teacher. Even if I wanted to rest and have some quality de-stress moments, I couldn’t. If my class, class 3-2, could continuously pump out high-scoring students, I could gain bonuses and raises. More money to hopefully heal and restore my family.
Now that I thought about it clearly, maybe the reason why I disliked Hanazawa and acted so cold around her on Earth was because of this reason? It wasn’t because she was messing up her potential or how ungrateful she acted around her heritage, it was because I identified her as an intelligent young woman. And this student could get me another raise… but would never listen to my instructions to do so. I was frustrated.
In the end, did my students really mean much to me? Or were they just sacks of yen I had to grow to harvest.
“You seem to love your students.” Mother smiled widely, showing enough wrinkles that nobody would have believed she was only 51 years old. “I didn’t expect you to love your teacher position so much.”
“… Neither did I.”
No.
The memories of my time with all my students. My time as the homeroom teacher of class 3-2. I was only 24 when I met them. Due to this small gap in our age did I manage to bond with most of them, especially with the girls and the scholastic-focused students, like Nishio.
How we celebrated after everybody passed their final exams in their first year. The kids dragged me into a pretty expensive restaurant, even saying they would cover everything from their pockets. It was embarrassing, since I was the adult, but no way could I afford to pay for any of this. Still, it was a fond memory.
So, no, the students did mean something to me. Outside of our relationship as teacher and students, we were quite friendly with each other. And now, after we were reunited in Peolynca, I had to fully admit we had become friends. I might have had ulterior motives as a teacher, but I knew the kids already knew about it.
Maybe if I had realized this earlier, maybe I would have been able to connect with Asaka. Or, at the very least, I wouldn’t have turned into such a stick-up-her-ass adult.
“Haha, then I met this girl named Hestia. No, wait, she went with ‘Miss Dragon’ for a while until I gave her that name. A very weird girl, honestly.”
“Oh, weird sounds good to me? It does make life more exciting right?”
“Yeah. It did.”
Reflecting on it, I think my time with Hestia and as a garm had definitely changed me. I was more willing to take risks, act more heroically similar to what I thought father was as a firefighter, and also be more casual about things. In our first half of our meeting, I was the one mostly lecturing Hestia and trying to push my ideals on her, but that sort of changed in the other half.
As Hestia became more confident and more willing to accept herself, I became more envious of her growth as a person. From the shy, self-deprecating dragon whelp I first met in the forest, to an inspiring, reliable heroine. I came to the Belzac forest because I wanted to change as she did, outside of just becoming stronger.
“And we fought and traveled together. We made more friends, more allies, but also quite a few enemies, sadly. However—” I stopped myself from continuing.
However, Mother already knew. “She’s your family now, too, right?”
“… Yeah.”
I looked at our already finished breakfast. We had already finished it ages ago. The stories I told were too engrossing for me to end, as every single memory was like treasure to me. I knew how fleeting life could be. My father died before we could travel the world, and I died before I could help my mother.
As such, every moment should be valued like treasure. At the end of your life, all that will remain with you would be your memories. A precious commodity. Some take it too lightly with how short a human life could be. After all, we never know when our lives would and could end. Sometimes, being a bit hedonistic would be best.
“…” Tears ran down my eyes once again, dripping as fast as a waterfall to the point Mother jumped up and ran over to me with a handkerchief. Wiping my tears away, she soothed me as if I was a small girl again. “Okaa-san…”
My weak voice reached my mother’s ears. “Yes, my dear?”
“Huek! I love you! Huek, kuek… And I miss you!” I forced my words out through a torrent of snot and emotions. “I’m sorry I left you! I’m sorry for dying before you! I want to see you again… Huek! I want to see Otou-san, again! I want us all to be happy!”
My mother to the right, and my father to the left. All together in a hug. Little wishes. Little prayers. Never to reach the proper ears.
“My sweet child…” I felt her hand stroking my hair and back. Her warmth was comforting. “I love you, too. We’ll always be there for you. In your hearts.”
“I hope…” I released myself from our hug and looked directly into my “Mother’s” own weary face. “Thank you… for giving me closure. But, you're not my mother. I can’t stay here forever.”
A wry smile formed on her face. Mothers knew best.
This wasn’t an illusion. This was a dream. No System messages, a memory full of holes as if I had a hangover, and a comforting place for me to find peace at. However, all Mother did was listen to me, never talk about herself. I also did not forget about Uno’s voice. I wouldn’t forget about my garms as I almost did Goma-kun!
“… You could be at peace here, Saori-chan. No more of the woes of the outside, no more heartbreaks. An illusion to keep you safe.” “Mother” tried to argue back, but I shook my head and wiped away my tears.
“Enough. I know this place is all made from shadows.” My shadow crept up my leg and began covering my arm like a black gauntlet. “Enough tricks. Stop this. You aren’t my mother.”
“… She is not. But I am.”
Mother dissipated into the air, flying away like a storm of sakura petals. The walls of our apartment broke down, revealing a translucent figure coming closer to me. I couldn’t guess its figure at first, but with every step it took, it became larger and more detailed.
Eventually, the creature towered over me like an elephant. It was see-through like a ghost or spirit, but I could at least make it out as a wolf. A giant monster wolf — a garm.
[“And you are my pup.”]
I recognize that face. It was the first person I met when I was reborn.
“Hello… Mother.”