by Yuu Miyazaki
“…I see.” Saya nodded in understanding.
Whether it was due to a lack of personnel or time, the fact that they had left the room in this state suggested they had something more important to see to.
“That means…,” Kirin began, turning toward the window.
The glass was broken, but the shards lay scattered across the balcony, not inside the room.
Julis rushed toward it, and sure enough, there were drops of blood on the balcony as well.
“She must have gone this way…”
Saya pulled at her sleeve, scowling at the destruction. “…We need to tell Ayato.”
“Right. He might have found something, too,” Julis agreed, reaching for her mobile. She hoped that Claudia was safe, wherever she might be.
CHAPTER 4
MIDDAY
“…You’re saying that the Nights are making a move?”
“I guess Galaxy finally ran out of patience.”
“Hmph. It’s none of my business,” Dirk Eberwein spat, reclining in his chair in the Le Wolfe Black Institute’s student council room, his usual frown carving deep wrinkles across his forehead.
“Dear me…,” Madiath Mesa, on the other side of the air-window, said with an affected shrug.
“If they do manage to get rid of her, it’ll make Seidoukan a hell of a lot easier to deal with. I can’t see them finding a replacement like her any time soon.”
“I see. So even you value her abilities, in your own way,” he joked.
Dirk glared into the air-window. “If that’s all you wanted to talk about, I’m hanging up. I’m afraid I don’t have as much free time on my hands as you do.”
“Now, now, hold on a minute. You’re as hot-headed as always, I see,” Madiath said, trying to soothe him. “No, the real issue is this: I only heard it a short while ago. It seems that our Miss Enfield knows about Varda.”
“What…?” Upon hearing this, even Dirk’s face paled in color.
Both Dirk and Madiath were members of a select group known as the Golden Bough Alliance, which, along with certain high-ranking executives in Galaxy, were supposed to be the only people with knowledge of the greatest secrets, including the existence of the only Orga Lux capable of acting independently, based on its own will—the Varda-Vaos.
Everyone else who knew about it had either been quietly taken care of, or else they had their memories erased by the Orga Lux itself, the primary ability of which was mind control.
“She must have brought it up either to try negotiating with Galaxy or else to threaten them. Something like that anyway.”
“She’s out of her mind.”
Trying to do something like that with an integrated enterprise foundation was practically the very definition of suicide.
“Indeed, that’s what I’m worried about. Do you really think that someone whose abilities you respect so much would have made such a foolish mistake?”
“…What do you mean?”
“What I’m saying is that everything that’s happened so far might all have been as she intended.” Madiath paused for a second. “Think about it. Galaxy brought in the Nights to deal with a student at their own school. That doesn’t make any sense. If they had wanted to do something, they could have punished her under some made-up pretext and dealt with it all internally.”
“So she started it all during the Festa, when Galaxy couldn’t afford to do anything half-baked, and even went so far as to give the other foundations an opportunity to hold them back… What a snake.”
“Considering the circumstances, the best option for Galaxy would simply be to make her disappear. In other words, assassinate her.”
Looking at it that way, there was a kind of logic to their actions.
And yet…
“But that still leaves the biggest problem. Why would she do it?”
From Claudia’s perspective, she was only hemming herself in. There was no logical benefit to be had.
“I’m afraid I don’t know the answer to that… But there is one thing I can say for sure.”
“Yeah?”
“She’s human, just like us. It doesn’t matter what her wish is—she’s willing to sacrifice anything in order to fulfill it… Or rather, she doesn’t even take those secondary matters into consideration to begin with.”
“…Hmph.”
“Don’t lump me in with you,” Dirk wanted to spit back.
“Well, that’s the situation, so we’d better keep an eye on her.”
“What’s the point? She’s practically dead already.”
Night Emit wasn’t only ancient, it was one of the most distinguished groups of its kind in the Far East.
It didn’t matter how great Claudia’s abilities were—there was no way she would be able to escape.
“Indeed.” Madiath laughed. “And yet, I’ve got a feeling we shouldn’t take that for granted.” He flashed Dirk a suspicious smile before ending the call.
“…” Dirk, left alone, crossed him arms and sank deep into thought.
Finally, with a click of his tongue, he opened another air-window. “Make sure Korona gets here quickly—before evening. And start spreading a rumor—indirectly. Seidoukan’s student council president seems to be missing.”
“…I see. Thanks, Julis. I’ll call you later. Make sure you… Right, I’ll leave it to you.”
Ayato closed the small air-window and let out a tired sigh. “She isn’t in her dorm room,” he muttered in a low voice. “And according to Julis, it looks like there was a fight of some kind…”
He was sitting alone at a four-person table in the back of a gloomy diner on the outskirts of the commercial area, a cup of mud-like coffee in his hand.
“Just as I thought,” a voice from behind him said.
She too had spoken so softly that he could barely make out the words, but the voice belonged to the student council vice president of Saint Gallardworth Academy, Laetitia Blanchard.
Glancing over his shoulder, he watched as the young lady, her elegance quite at odds with the somewhat cheerless diner, lifted her cup of tea to her lips.
There was no denying that she stood out, but there was nothing he could do about that.
“Anyway, I’m surprised you knew this place. It’s certainly suitable for off-the-record talks… Although the clientele leaves something to be desired.” Laetitia spoke as if she was somehow impressed with the place and yet at the same time taking issue with it.
“No, I only found out about it from someone else…,” Ayato explained, looking down into his coffee.
It was the same diner where he had gone with Irene for information on Flora’s kidnapping during the last Festa. It was, after all, a rather shady establishment, so it was little wonder that Laetitia found it suspicious.
In other words, it was more suited to students from Le Wolfe than from Gallardworth.
“Well, you’re helping me out, so I won’t pry. I’m not very familiar with these kinds of places, and yet…”
“…And yet?”
“I’m not impressed that you frequent such a dubious place. I’ve heard that you often go to the Rotlicht as well. If you’re going to be friends with Claudia, you really need to think about improving your character a little.”
“I came here for a specific reason last time…,” he tried to explain, but Laetitia wouldn’t hear it.
“The Enfield family is just as distinguished in Europe as the Blanchard family. If you go around behaving in a way unbecoming of that name, it won’t just reflect poorly on you—you’ll drag Claudia down as well. And if that happens, I’ll never forgive you.”
“Right…”
For some reason, Laetitia seemed to be taking offense at all the wrong things.
It was clear, however, from the way she was speaking, that she truly was worried for Claudia.
“Listen up, Ayato Amagiri! If I’m being honest, I still haven’t accepted you. I’m only asking for your help now because I don’t have any other options. Keep
that in mind!”
“Right… So what did you want to tell me?” he prompted. If he let her keep going on like that, she might never tell him.
“Yes… Ahem. Very well,” she said, clearing her throat.
Ayato had only suggested the diner in the first place because she had said that she wanted to speak to him in person.
After all, it sounded like they couldn’t afford to talk over the phone.
“I want to find Claudia as quickly as possible as well,” he told her.
She seemed to hesitate for the briefest of moments, before answering: “Then you need to hear this. It might prove vital to save her.”
In that case, she needed to come out with it, Ayato thought.
“…Just so you know, it was Claudia herself who told me this, and she made me promise not tell anyone else. I always intended to honor that promise, but now… Now I guess I don’t have any choice.”
“What is it?”
But instead of answering him, Laetitia asked a question of her own: “Before that, do you know what Claudia’s wish is—why she came to Asterisk?”
“Well… She wants to meet Ladislav Bartošik, the professor who was involved in the Jade Twilight Incident.”
Claudia had said as much during their winners’ interview several days ago, so that should have been public knowledge. Ayato personally, however, couldn’t help but wonder if her real goal wasn’t something else.
“Indeed. I saw her say that during the interview. But you know… That’s completely different than what she told me once before.”
“What…?”
Ayato was about to turn around, when, perhaps sensing this, Laetitia continued: “Let me start from the beginning. She and I used to be rivals, always competing against each other for victory in tournaments throughout Europe… In the end, I wasn’t ever able to beat her, though…”
“Right…”
Laetitia’s voice was filled with chagrin, muffled, as if she were biting on a handkerchief.
“Ahem. Anyway, during one tournament, she was in unusually high spirits. And she told me that she had finally found a wish that she wanted to have granted.”
“She was in high spirits? Claudia…?” Ayato had only known her for just over a year, but he had yet to see that side of her.
“Yes. I was surprised, too. I asked her to tell me, but she wouldn’t say anything more about it. I ended up getting so angry that I made a bet with her that if I won the next match, she would have to tell me everything.”
“…But didn’t you just say you weren’t able to beat her?”
In that case, she must have lost that bet.
Perhaps she had taken offense at those words, as she continued in a serious, quick voice: “R-right, but don’t interrupt! She was clearly acting strange during that tournament. I heard afterward that she had just gotten her hands on the Pan-Dora. She couldn’t use it because of the tournament’s regulations, but still…”
“The Pan-Dora…? Wait, hold on. I thought you said this happened when you were both still kids?”
Orga Luxes were only supposed to be used inside Asterisk. Of course, there were always exceptions, such as when Ayato had gone to Lieseltania, so it wasn’t impossible to take them outside the city, given that the user undertook the proper administrative procedures. Moreover, a winner in the Festa might use their wish to take private possession of an Orga Lux, but even in such cases, ownership would only last for the user’s lifetime, before reverting to the relevant foundation. Giving one to a child who wasn’t even a student at Asterisk, however—that was an extraordinary exception.
“I was surprised to hear it, too… But then, given her mother’s position, it probably wasn’t all that difficult. Even then, the woman was already close to the top at Galaxy. Moreover, I don’t think she had it all the time. They sent it back every now and then for analysis.” Laetitia paused there, sipping from her cup of tea. “Anyway, that’s how it was. She clearly wasn’t in a good way, and the final ended in a draw.”
“A draw…?”
“Neither of us won, and neither of us lost. So after making me promise never to tell anyone, she offered to tell me half of her wish,” Laetitia said with a small sigh. “Her wish—Claudia’s wish—was to dedicate herself fully to her destined partner.”
“…Huh?” Ayato inadvertently let that out, taken aback by what he had just heard. “Dedicate herself? To her destined partner?”
He had no idea what kind of person she had been as a child, but that kind of thing certainly didn’t match the Claudia he knew.
“Well, I was just as confused when I heard it. At first, I thought she was pulling my leg, so I asked her about this destined partner. And she told me that she hadn’t met him yet.”
Ayato could understand why she would think Claudia had been joking.
“But then she went to Seidoukan and rose to the position of student council president… And then, watching her actions, it suddenly all made sense to me. That destined partner she was talking about—it has to be you, Ayato Amagiri.”
“What?!” he exclaimed, spinning around. Realizing what he had done, he quickly turned back to his own table, lowering his voice: “…How did that happen?”
“To tell you the truth, at first, I thought you must have tricked her, but now…”
“I—I didn’t do anything like that…”
“Don’t worry. I’m not that bad a judge of character. I can tell from what you’ve done so far that, if nothing else, you’re not a bad person at heart.” Despite her words, there did seem to be a touch of displeasure in her voice. “Anyway, she put a huge amount of effort—and not just her own—into finding you and recommending you for a special scholarship. You, with no achievements, nothing at all to your name. That was the only time she had ever done anything like that—so I knew right away, it had to be you.”
“…” Ayato remained silent. He, too, had long wondered why the opportunity had come to him of all people.
He had tried to ask her about it the first time they had met. After all, he wasn’t the kind of outstanding student who would be considered a candidate for a scholarship—let alone be offered one. Claudia had said there had been a lot of opposition, but she had pushed through with his candidacy regardless. But in that case, how had she known about him to begin with?
“…This is just a guess, but I think she must have seen you in those nightmares that she has from using the Pan-Dora.”
“The Pan-Dora…? But I thought her memories of those faded away when she woke up?”
He was sure she had said something like that.
“That does seem to be the case. But she must have said something like this as well, that some fragments and impressions remain. What do you think? Even if they are just fragments, would they really be so strong as to completely change someone’s outlook on life?”
In the back of his mind, Ayato remembered something Claudia had said back when they had first met.
“At last… We meet at last.”
She had embraced him from behind, in the middle of the student council room.
Thinking back, her actions then had been completely at odds with her usual self. She had spoken with a fragile, helpless voice—a voice that he hadn’t heard again since.
“Basically, she must have met you in her dreams and fallen for you… Then she decided to come here, to Asterisk, meet you, and dedicate herself to you. That must have been her wish. To be honest, I think it’s a pretty stupid one, but that’s a different matter.”
Personally, Ayato found it somewhat difficult to accept, but when he looked at it objectively, he couldn’t deny that it all made sense.
“But then why does she have to participate in the Festa…?”
If Laetitia’s conclusions were true, then there would have been no need for Claudia to fight in the Gryps or make an enemy of Galaxy.
“Exactly!” Laetitia let out enthusiastically, as if she had only been building up to this point. “She only told me
half her wish—so the other half has to be related to what’s going on now.”
“The other half… Do you think it has something to do with Professor Bartošik and the Jade Twilight Incident?”
Ayato couldn’t see much of a connection between the two issues.
“That’s what I want to ask you… Ayato Amagiri, what do you know about it?”
“…Me?”
But there was no way he could know any more about the incident than she already did.
“I hadn’t even heard of the professor until Claudia brought him up,” he answered with a shake of his head—though he knew that Laetitia couldn’t see it.
“Really? You’re not hiding anything?”
“No, I swear.”
“Hmm… Fine.” Laetitia’s voice seemed to be filled with disappointment.
“Anyway, all that aside, you must be one of the most important keys to this mystery. I’m sure of it.”
“Well… I guess so.”
He didn’t feel so sure himself, but based on everything she had said, he couldn’t deny the possibility that she might be right.
“So you need to find her and convince her to give up on it. You’re the only one who would be able to do it.”
“That’s…,” he began, before falling silent, at a loss for words.
Did he even have the right to make her give up on her wish, he wondered, especially given everything she had done to come this far?
“Even assuming that she manages to pull through this, once the integrated enterprise foundations start to do something, they never give up. You understand that, right? In this world, to oppose the integrated enterprise foundations is basically to sign your own death warrant. No matter what that wish of hers is, it can’t be worth more than her life.”
It was clear from Laetitia’s sincerity that she was truly concerned about her. That was enough for Ayato.
“…All right,” he said with a nod.
There probably were wishes that people would be willing to stake one’s life on, he thought. But even so, he didn’t want to lose Claudia over it.
“…In that case, I’ll believe in you. Take this.”
