by Yuu Miyazaki
The two creatures were circling around him, baring their razor-sharp teeth as they waited for an opening.
This is bad…
It looked like this was going to be more difficult than he had thought.
If there were only one, he might have been willing to risk it, but fighting both at once was beyond his current strength.
He, at least, had the Ser Veresta to help him, unlike the previous day, but he doubted that he would be able to wield it for long. He was already at his limit just maintaining the Orga Lux.
“Grrraaaaaar!”
The three-headed beast—Cerberus—gave out a long, low growl, arching its back. In that position, it was ready to attack at any moment, when seemingly out of nowhere, the other creature leaped toward his back.
It was a simple feint—but even though he could see that well enough, his body wouldn’t respond in time.
“Gah…!”
The creature’s foreleg swept down on him, sending him and Julis—still held tightly in his arms—slicing through the air.
The blow was so strong it almost knocked him unconscious, already weakened as he was by the effects of the poison.
The double-headed creature—Orthrus—leaped after him, running across the snow-covered field as if chasing a ball. As its huge jaws, easily large enough to swallow a person whole, drew closer, Ayato, timing his movements carefully, braced himself in a defensive position. Rather than trying to dodge its razor-sharp fangs, he stepped toward its gaping mouth.
“Amagiri Shinmei Style, First Technique—Goring Tusk!”
He hunched his back, swinging the Ser Veresta downward with all his weight.
The two-headed creature let out a harrowing scream as the blade sliced it clean in half.
“Well now. I should have expected no less from the champion of the Phoenix. But I’m afraid you’ve just made a terrible mistake…”
Ayato turned to face the clapping, nodding Gustave, when he came face-to-face with the rapidly approaching Cerberus.
I can’t dodge it!
He was about to thrust Julis away to protect her.
“—”
Then a blinding blade flashed in front of him, sending each of the creature’s three fang-bared heads flying through the air.
Its huge body fell to the ground with a loud thud, sending a plume of snow dancing into the air.
In the middle of that cloud shone a figure with brilliant, golden hair.
“Sorry to keep you waiting, Ayato. Looks like I made it just in time.”
“Claudia…!” Ayato gasped, relieved, before falling to the ground, his strength finally retreating.
She was holding a pair of swords, one in either hand—the Pan-Dora. Ayato felt as if the eye design on their hilts was staring right through him.
“Oh my, this is unexpected. What a nuisance.” Gustave, who until now hadn’t broken his smile, took on a look of mild impatience.
“What do you want to do, Gustave Malraux? I don’t mind fighting you…but you’d rather not, wouldn’t you?”
“…You’re a shrewd young lady, aren’t you? Disagreeably so.” He stood off against Claudia in silence for a long moment, before finally letting out a deep sigh, shaking his head. “Ha… You’re right. I was ordered not to lay a hand on you. I hate having to let this opportunity slip by, but it looks like I’ll have to withdraw for now.”
“That’s a wise decision.” Claudia smiled, watching as Gustave, his expression dark, disappeared into the forest.
“Ah… Thank you, Claudia,” Ayato murmured.
“I’m just glad I made it in time. I’ve already contacted the Royal Palace, so someone should be here soon to pick us up.”
“I see…,” he mumbled, his vision going dim. Everything seemed to fade into the distance.
“Ayato? Are you okay? Ayato…!”
Claudia’s voice accompanied him as he slipped into the darkness.
The greenhouse had long since ceased to be operational. The glass walls and roof were cracked and broken in places, and yet, there were signs of repairs as well, so it didn’t look as if it had been totally abandoned.
In this country, with its cold, severe winters, it was no doubt easy to find some use for a garden cut off from the outside elements. The plants that filled the building all glowed different shades of vibrant green, with pretty little flowers poking their heads out here and there.
Inside, a rose-haired girl sat motionless, watching as a chestnut-haired girl moved to and fro, absorbed in her gardening. “I don’t get it. What’s so fun about it?” the former asked.
The latter girl shook her shoulders, chuckling. “It’s the feeling, I suppose.”
“The feeling?”
“Right. The feeling of touching life.”
“If that’s all, dealing with those kids should be enough.”
They were both young themselves, but there were many children in the orphanage younger still.
“It isn’t the same,” the chestnut-haired girl insisted. “These little ones can’t speak, but they’re incredibly honest. If you show them some love, they’ll love you right back. But if you ignore them, they’ll turn their backs on you.”
“Turn their backs? On people?” The girl with the reddish-pink hair made a face as if to say she didn’t understand.
“Oh, didn’t you know? When healthy plants die, it’s because no one has loved them.”
“…I didn’t know that.” Her tone indicated she was unconvinced, though she showed no sign of wanting to leave.
She couldn’t pinpoint exactly why, but being inside the greenhouse was strangely comforting. It might have been old, cramped, and run-down, but she found herself able to relax there.
And after a while, she suddenly realized it was thanks to the presence of the kind girl working in front of her.
“Doesn’t it get boring, just watching all the time? Why don’t you try helping out?”
“…Me?”
“There no one else here. Here, take this.”
The rose-haired girl turned embarrassed. “I-I’ve never taken care of plants before…”
“Oh my… You really don’t know. Okay, I’ll teach you.” The other girl laughed.
It was a truly delighted smile: gentle, happy—and warm.
His body was awfully heavy.
An unbearable feeling of pressure, as if something unseen were crushing him.
Ayato opened his eyes, unable to endure it any longer, and the ceiling of a dim room appeared before him.
He lay bewildered for a short moment, before it all came rushing back.
He was in the room that had been assigned to him in the detached villa on the grounds of the Lieseltanian Royal Palace.
“…So I lost consciousness…”
Which meant that the weight pressing down on him was probably due to the effects of Orphelia’s poison.
When he tried to raise his body, the weight abruptly revealed its true form:
“Ngh…”
“Zzz…”
Saya and Kirin lay asleep, sprawled on top of him like a blanket.
As one would expect for a room designated for royal guests, the bed should have been more than large enough for three people to sleep in comfortably. But the two were holding on to him tightly, Saya’s face against his arm, and Kirin’s by his feet. Both were sound asleep, their breathing soft and relaxed.
“Um…”
Unable to fully grasp the situation, he lay wondering what he should do, when the door quietly swung open, and a lone figure stepped in.
“So you’re awake. Honestly, Ayato, don’t scare us all like that.” Her face was silhouetted by the light from the corridor, but he could tell from the voice that it was Julis.
“Ha… This is embarrassing… But are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I woke up a long time ago,” she replied, sitting down on a chair by the bed. “How long do you think you’ve been asleep?”
“Huh? I don’t know…” He had been in n
o state to keep count, after all.
Julis flashed a mischievous smile. “Three days.”
“Three days?!” he exclaimed.
“Orphelia uses all different types of poisons. The one that she used on you puts its victims into the same state as when they use up all their prana. It isn’t life-threatening, but the stronger your prana to begin with, the stronger its effect. So it looks like it took quite a toll on you.”
“Oh…”
“These two were so worried, they’ve been watching over you every day. You should thank them when they wake up,” Julis said, her gentle eyes looking over Saya and Kirin. “And I still have to thank you, too.”
“Me?”
“Claudia told me what happened. How you held Orphelia off, and then when Gustave showed up… Thank you.”
“Oh, that.” What she said was true, but he hadn’t thought much of it. If their positions had been reversed, she would have clearly done the same thing. They had already developed that level of trust.
“Don’t mention it. Just as long as you don’t start talking about debts and all that again.”
Julis gave him a mild smile, shaking her head. “No… I just wanted to say it properly.”
Ayato smiled back before taking a serious expression. “So do you think you can tell me now? About you and her—Orphelia Landlufen.”
“…Right. I guess you have a right to know, since it’s come to this.” The princess fell silent for a moment, her expression heavy with emotion. Eventually, Julis took out a handkerchief from her breast pocket. “Do you remember this?”
“Of course. We first met thanks to that handkerchief.”
It had been carried away by the wind, dancing in the air right in front of him that day when he had first arrived at Seidoukan Academy. He had gone to return it to its owner—that had been their first meeting.
It felt like an eternity had passed since then, but it had only been half a year.
“Right. I think I mentioned it once before, but it was a present to me from everyone at the orphanage.”
“Yeah, everyone embroidered it for you. And your best friend sewed something in the middle of it…” He stopped there, suddenly realizing who it was. “Don’t tell me…!”
“Yes. My best friend was Orphelia,” Julis admitted wistfully, tracing the embroidery with her finger.
“So she used to be at that orphanage?”
Julis nodded slightly, standing up. She approached the window and pulled open the luxurious curtains.
He didn’t know what time it was, but soft moonlight shone in through the cloudy sky.
“But if she’s your best friend, why did she…?” Recalling the battle between the two, he averted his gaze.
Friends anywhere quarreled every now and then, but that battle was something else.
“When I first started coming to the orphanage, Orphelia and I soon became good friends. We were around the same age, and even though our personalities were completely different, we got along with each other. She was so kind, she couldn’t even hurt an insect, and she loved to take care of plants… She would be so happy when one of those small flowers started to bloom…”
The Orphelia who Julis described sounded like a completely different person than the one Ayato had seen.
“But then, one day, she just disappeared. When I asked the sisters where she had gone, they wouldn’t tell me anything. So I begged my brother to investigate, and he finally looked into it for me. It turned out that the orphanage’s management had racked up a huge debt, and…well, they’d given Orphelia to a research institution as collateral… The stupidest part of it all was that I didn’t know anything up till then. About the way this county is run, this system, or even my own position within it all.”
“…”
“Of course, I did everything in my power to try to get her back. But all it did was show me just how powerless I was. Ultimately, no one in this country is allowed to have an opinion on the integrated enterprise foundations’ research facilities,” Julis finished.
The room fell into silence.
Ayato too kept silent, enduring that heavy stillness.
“The research institute that she was sent to was operated by Frauenlob. It was that abandoned building in the middle of the snowfield.”
“That was it…?”
“They were trying to research…how to create a Genestella.”
“Wha—?!” Ayato exclaimed in surprise. He had never heard of such an insane idea.
“The person in charge of it all was a someone called the Great Scholar, Magnum Opus. She was a student from Allekant.”
“So that’s why you hate Allekant…”
“You might call it a personal grudge,” she muttered, slowly taking out her mobile and opening an air-window.
It was a photo of two young, innocent girls. One was a spirited-looking child with brilliantly rose-colored hair, the other chestnut-haired with a gentle demeanor.
“This is me and Orphelia.”
He recognized Julis straightaway. But with the color of her hair and eyes, and the aura around her, Orphelia looked like a completely different person.
“Orphelia wasn’t a Genestella back then, let alone a Strega. To think that they’ve turned her into the strongest in the world…”
In other words, she was an artificially created Strega.
“So you’re saying the research was a success?”
“Well… If it was, it would have been the discovery of the century. They would have made a huge deal of it. That they didn’t means there must have been a problem. Like Orphelia.”
“A problem?”
She gave him a dark smile, her shoulders trembling slightly. “You saw what was left of that building. That’s what happened when her powers got out of control. The whole place fell into ruin. The ground itself rotted. Not even grass will grow there anymore.”
“Got out of control…? What do you mean?”
“I don’t know the details. All I know is that when the research institute was destroyed, Solnage’s special operations unit rescued her. After that, she was transferred from Frauenlob to Solnage, but I don’t know what kind of deal they made.”
“So that’s why she’s at Le Wolfe…”
Solnage was the integrated enterprise foundation backing the Le Wolfe Black Institute.
“I only found out about all this much later, of course. At the time, what happened to that research facility was kept secret, and I couldn’t find any clue as to where she was or how she was doing… Until I watched the Lindvolus…”
“The one before last?” Ayato asked.
Julis nodded. “I couldn’t believe my eyes. Her appearance had changed, but I knew it was her. So I tried to contact her…” Her voice trailed off.
Ayato could guess what the result had been.
“She’d changed. Maybe it was unavoidable, given the circumstances, but she seemed to have given up on everything, to have thrown everything away. But…I still want the old Orphelia back. At this rate, she won’t last.” She clenched her teeth.
“What do you mean, she won’t last?”
“I’m a Strega, too, so I know. It isn’t possible to fully control that much power. That miasma is a double-edged sword. The more she uses it, the more it eats away at her own life…”
Ayato himself had found it hard to believe that someone could wield that much power without suffering any consequences.
“Which is why, around a year ago, when I was admitted to Asterisk, I went looking for her. I thought I’d be able to persuade her. Or at least be able to stop her from getting into any more useless battles. But she wouldn’t listen to me. She told me I’d have to win against her… But you can probably guess how that worked out.”
So that was what happened.
“Sorry it took so long, but that’s it.” Julis let out a sigh, wearing a relieved expression. She rested a hand on her hip. “So, Ayato, this is between me and Orphelia. I’m sorry you got caught up in it, but I n
eed to settle this myself. Otherwise, Orphelia will never accept the outcome. Okay?”
“…I understand.” He wanted to offer his help, but there were some things that had to be seen to alone.
“So that’s that. You two can stop pretending to be asleep now,” she added teasingly. “And the same thing goes for you—don’t get involved.”
“…So you noticed us?”
“A-ah… Sorry.”
Saya and Kirin looked up apologetically.
“Oh, so you were awake,” Ayato asked, though he immediately realized how obvious that was.
“Um, we didn’t mean to eavesdrop… We just kind of ended up overhearing, I guess…”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s more important right now for us to focus on what to do about Gustave Malraux,” Julis said.
“Don’t tell me, has anyone else been attacked while I was asleep?” This was no time to be taking it easy, after all.
“No, everything’s fine on that point, at least. Both the Royal Palace and the villa are on heightened security, and the whole city is on alert. Even he won’t be able try anything here without considerable planning. And I had some security posted at the orphanage, too, just in case.”
She was evidently worried, given what had happened to Flora.
“Even the integrated enterprise foundations won’t just sit back if he tries anything too stupid. My brother should have already contacted them, but there’s always a fixed number of soldiers stationed at their research facilities near the capital. So long as we don’t get caught up in a full-scale war, they should be more than enough to deal with one criminal.”
“It would be better if he would behave himself and leave us alone though…,” Kirin murmured, her fingers grazing her Senbakiri.
“…That’s probably hoping for too much.”
“Right. It will be too hard for him to carry out his mission—attacking us—once we go back to Asterisk. Not only will he have a hard time getting into the city in the first place, it will be all but impossible for him to get out, even if he does beat us. So he’s sure to try something before then.”
