by Yuu Miyazaki
“…I’m going to win the Gryps, and expand the power of the monarchy.”
Jolbert stiffened. “H-hold on a minute, Julis! Are you… You are being serious, aren’t you?”
“Of course. Even if we were to try to follow the appropriate procedures through the parliament, the ministers will just do whatever the integrated enterprise foundations tell them to do. So I’ll just have to use whatever others means are available to our advantage,” Julis declared with a self-deprecating laugh.
“…It’s certainly possible, if you asked for it as a reward from the Festa, and it isn’t like it would be without precedent…,” Jolbert muttered in astonishment.
Lieseltania might be an extreme case, but it was a well-known fact that practically every other nation in the world was also under the control of the integrated enterprise foundations. In any of them, the governmental powers were only as broad as the written law, and laws could easily be revised whenever the integrated enterprise foundations wanted.
But it was another thing entirely for them to be changed by an individual with no official ties.
“I understand that it’s a tall order. Maybe it’s not even the right way to go about it. But it’s what I’m wishing for… And that’s what that city exists for, after all, isn’t it?” She paused there for a moment, squeezing her eyes tight as if to shut out any trace of hesitation—and opened them with a snap. “And when that happens, it will no doubt throw a lot of trouble and responsibility on your shoulders, the both of you. But please, brother… Won’t you work with me to fix it all?”
“…”
Jolbert met Julis’s gaze in stony silence for a long moment, and then, as if no longer able to hold himself back, he burst into sudden laughter. “Ha-ha! …Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Impressive, very impressive! I never thought I’d see the day when my little sister would ask me for my help! You’ve really changed!”
“Wh-why are you laughing?! I’m being serious…!”
“I know, I know… But I can’t help but wonder if this isn’t due to Amagiri’s—no, all of your influence,” Jolbert said, dodging Julis’s gaze as he looked over her companions with genuine appreciation.
“But what I was saying…!”
“All right.”
“Huh?” Julis gaped, taken aback by her brother’s perfectly timed nod.
“I don’t really know how much I can help you…but I promise, if you really can win the Gryps, I’ll bite the bullet and stop playing the fool. What do you think, Maria?”
“Hmm, I don’t really understand all these complicated matters, but if that’s what you’ve decided, Jolbert, I’ll follow your lead.” The queen chuckled lightly with a beaming smile.
Julis finally seemed to relax. “Brother, sister-in-law… Thank you,” she said, her voice surging with resolve.
“…What wonderful siblings,” Kirin said in a small voice, smiling and standing beside Ayato.
“Yep,” Ayato replied, thinking about his relationship with his own sister.
Of course, Julis and Jolbert had completely different personalities, but when Ayato witnessed their shared expression of trust, he couldn’t help but be reminded of Haruka.
All of a sudden, his mobile began to ring with an incoming call.
“Huh? Who would call at this time of day?” he wondered, opening an air-window, when he was confronted by an unexpected face. “Commander Lindwall?!”
The thought of Helga contacting him directly had never occurred to him, so her sudden appearance in the air-window left him more than a little flustered.
“Sorry to bother you all of a sudden, Amagiri. I was worried that you might be asleep, but it’s a good thing I got ahold of you. I wanted to let you know as soon as possible.”
“…Let me know what?”
Given the apparent urgency of her phone call, it sounded like no trivial matter.
“I’ll try to put this as simply as I can. Ayato Amagiri, we’ve located your sister.”
“—?!”
Her words ran through his body with the force of a lightning bolt.
“Welcome home. I must say, I expected you to stop by a little sooner,” the man said, his eyes wide in bewilderment, as Claudia greeted him with a smile.
They were in the Enfield family mansion, in the suburbs of London.
The building was in the Gothic Revival style and had been relocated from the town of Tiverton. It was but one of several residences owned by the Enfield family. But Claudia knew that the man had a special attachment to this one in particular.
“There’s no need to act so surprised,” Claudia said with a laugh. “Ha-ha, after all, this is my home, too. Isn’t it, Father?”
“…It’s been a while since we’ve spoken face-to-face, hasn’t it, Claudia?”
“That’s because you won’t answer my calls. You left me no choice but to come see you in person.”
“…”
The man—Nicholas Enfield, Claudia’s father—took off his coat in silence, his expression haggard. A middle-aged man, he had appeared in the entrance hall without a sound, accepted her words without complaint, and sat down in silence.
He had a healthy physique, and though he would be turning fifty later this year, he carried himself with a certain level of dignity, his golden hair, speckled with gray here and there, combed down neatly.
“You’ve obviously already heard, but Gustave Malraux has been arrested. I was going to ask you to cancel your contract with him and call him off…but it looks like my friends have already settled things.”
“Yes, I know. I guess he wasn’t as good as everyone made him out to be,” Nicholas said, as if it were an everyday matter.
“My! I didn’t expect you to admit to it so easily. I suppose he won’t reveal who his client was, then?”
“There’s no point feigning ignorance. You’re too smart for that. So what are you going to do? Will you press charges against me?”
“Of course not. Why on earth would I do something so wasteful?” Claudia said with an innocent laugh. “Someone from Galaxy hired a criminal to attack students from Seidoukan Academy, and the princess of a foreign country, at that. I’m not going to throw such a useful card away. I’ll hold it close to my chest, until I need it.”
“Galaxy had nothing to do with this. It was me—only me.”
“I know that. After all, if Galaxy really wanted to stop me, they wouldn’t have resorted to such a lukewarm method. But, Father, there won’t be any explaining your way out of this now, given your position, will there? Mother will have probably decided as much, too, don’t you think?”
“…Probably,” Nicholas sighed, his face full of resignation.
Claudia’s father was a chief revenue officer assistant at Galaxy. His job was to assist his wife, an executive at the integrated enterprise foundation’s headquarters. It was a position that brought him as close as possible to being an executive, but he must have known that he would never reach those heights. As with Kirin’s father, Kouichirou Toudou, he wasn’t of that caliber.
“I’m sure Mother was aware of it from the beginning. And that she gave it her tacit consent.”
“Maybe… But I can never tell what she’s thinking,” he muttered, slowly shaking his head. “But there’s one thing I do understand. Now that I’ve failed, she won’t wait long before acting herself. And when that happens, if she judges it necessary, she won’t hesitate to cast me aside. Your card will be useless if that happens.”
“I suppose so.”
“Don’t you understand, Claudia?! If that happens…!”
“I know, Father. You did it for my sake.”
That was how far he was willing to go for her, out of his love.
And it was also why he would never become an executive.
“…Are you still going to take part in the Gryps?”
“Yes.”
“Then please, at least change your wish. It isn’t too late.”
“I’ve told you before. I can’t do that,” she
declared flatly.
It was the one thing she wouldn’t do.
After all, it was the reason why she had endured so much up till now.
“I…I love you, Claudia…” Nicholas’s voice was so weak that it sounded like it might fade away at any moment.
Claudia walked past him, his head hanging in resignation, and opened the door. “I love you, too, Father.”
And her mother, too. She loved all her family.
But, unfortunately, even that wasn’t enough to make her give up on her wish.
No, there wasn’t anything in this fallen world that could make her give up on it.
“Well then, good-bye, Father,” she said, closing the door.
She looked up at the cold, midwinter sky, listening to the silence of the heavy gulf that seemed to fill the space behind her.
Ayato, having returned to Asterisk early at the others’ suggestion, headed straight for the hospital in the central district. He was supposed to remain in Lieseltania for several days in the aftermath of the incident with Gustave in order to give evidence, but with Jolbert’s intervention, he’d managed to get himself exempted from the legal formalities, landing in Asterisk less than twelve hours after receiving Helga’s call.
Given what he had been through over the past few days, there was no denying his physical exhaustion, but he didn’t have time to worry about that right now.
“So you came.” Helga was waiting for him outside the building.
“Commander Lindwall, my sister—where is she…?!”
“Hold on a moment. Anyway, follow me. We’ll fill you in inside,” Helga said calmly, in stark contrast to his own restlessness.
She led him into the building. Ayato, barely able to contain his impatience, followed in silence as she took him deep inside, to an area that was normally off-limits, except to staff.
The building was actually just one of several facilities that belonged to the hospital. Medical treatment, examinations, and the like were generally performed in the towering complex next door.
Helga led him to a room in the basement.
“The director’s office…?” Ayato muttered suspiciously, when Helga knocked at the door.
The door slid open, and he followed her inside. There were two people waiting for them in the unexpectedly small room.
One was a short, eccentric-looking old man dressed in a white lab coat. His head was almost completely bald, but he had a huge, white beard. He seemed to be in a bad mood, and stood tapping his finger on the desk impatiently.
Ayato had met the other person before.
“Chairman…? What are you doing here?”
“It’s a rather complicated situation… Anyway, this is Director Yan Korbel. He’s in charge of the hospital here,” Madiath Mesa, the Festa Executive Committee chairman, said, introducing the old man.
But the director merely glanced at Ayato for a moment, then turned back to Madiath. “I’m sorry, but I’m very busy. Can we get this over with?”
Helga leaned down toward Ayato’s ear. “Don’t worry,” she whispered. “He’s like this with everyone.”
Ayato gave her a slight nod before looking back at Madiath. “Did they really find my sister?”
“Yes. I was going to explain the situation here…but the director seems to be in a hurry, so do you mind if we talk on the way?”
“I guess not…,” he answered, not really understanding what was going on.
Madiath glanced toward Yan, his gaze seeming to suggest something. “Well then, director?”
“…Hmph.” Yan gave them all a sour look, then headed to the back wall, pressing a button to reveal a hidden corridor. Inside, there seemed to be a rather large facility.
“This is a special area. Normally, only the director and a select number of staff are allowed to enter,” Madiath said as they followed Yan through the pure-white corridor. “Now then, I suppose you’ve already heard about the former executive committee chairman, Danilo?”
“A little…”
“I see. Then this shouldn’t take long. Well, Commander Lindwall reopened the investigation into his relationship with the Eclipse, and she followed a new lead that revealed a considerable flow of money. Director Korbel here was connected to it.”
“A flow of money…?”
“Well, it sounds a little suspicious, doesn’t it, but it really isn’t that unusual. There’s quite a few cases of injury that we wouldn’t want to make public.”
“That isn’t something the police force is very happy about, though,” Helga interrupted coolly.
At this, Madiath merely flashed her a forced smile.
It was Director Yan who responded, without so much as turning around. “Even you didn’t have any problem with the independence of the hospital back then,” he grumbled.
“The situation is different now. And even then, we only gave our grudging consent. Besides, this is pushing the limits of your independence.”
“Now, now, you two… Anyway, Amagiri, just so long as you understand that this is a highly confidential location. Once someone has been admitted, the hospital never leaks information about them, or probes into their personal circumstances. Those are the rules. Which is why no one knew that your sister—Haruka Amagiri—had been taken here.”
“—?! So my sister’s here?!”
“Yes. It looks like Danilo arranged it.”
Ayato felt a surge of relief at his response, but at the same time, he was forced to face a level of anxiety he’d never experienced before.
“Is she… Is she all right?” he asked guardedly.
It was obvious enough that this was a special place, even within Asterisk. If she was in a place like this, her situation may have been far from normal.
“That’s…a little difficult to answer.”
“In here,” Yan said, pointing toward the wall on his right.
There was only a plate with the room number on the otherwise unremarkable wall, but when he called out a passphrase, a holographic keyboard appeared before him. He typed something into it, and the wall became transparent.
The wall seemed to turn into glass, and they could see into the entire room. It was filled with all kinds of medical devices, and on the bed in the middle of the room was—
“Haruka!”
The figure, asleep in that bed, was without a doubt Ayato’s older sister, Haruka Amagiri.
Ayato pressed against the glass as if to get closer to her. Though five years had passed since he had last seen her, she didn’t seem to have changed at all from how he remembered her. Rather, she looked exactly the same.
“…Director Korbel, how long has my sister been here?”
Yan paused to think for a moment. “If memory serves me right, it must have been…oh, about five years ago. Danilo asked me to wake her.”
Which meant she had been like this since shortly after arriving at Asterisk.
“I wasn’t told who she was. And without any firm evidence, I’m normally not obliged to help with Stjarnagarm’s investigations… But this time is different. If it’s a wish from the Festa, there’s no getting around it.”
“Once a wish from the Festa has been accepted, carrying it out is our highest priority. And if necessary, the integrated enterprise foundations have to cooperate, too. It’s an unwritten law to maintain the integrity of the Festa,” Madiath said, his expression grave.
“How did… What’s her condition?”
“She hasn’t changed at all since we admitted her. She seems to be in a state close to suspended animation. As for the cause… We think it’s due to some kind of ability.”
“Is it like mine?” asked Helga, who had the ability to manipulate time around her.
But Ayato shook his head. “No… It’s probably her own ability.”
“What?” Yan looked at Ayato sternly. “What are you talking about? Explain yourself!”
“The power to bind all things… That’s her ability. I don’t know why, but she might have used it on hers
elf.”
“Hmm, I see…”
Ayato could feel it resonating from her—the same shackles that Haruka had used to bind his own power. The echo of mana was so weak that most people probably wouldn’t be able to notice it, but he, who had grown up around her for most of his life, had no doubt become sensitized to it.
But why would she do that to herself…? And more importantly—
“Director, how is her treatment going?”
Yan’s expression turned pale, and he looked away, stammering. “W-well… To be honest… Nothing seems to be effective…”
“What do you mean? Isn’t ability cancellation supposed to be your specialty?” Helga asked with a frown.
“Even I’m not all-powerful.” Yan pouted. “I’ve tried everything imaginable over these past five years, but as you can see, nothing’s worked.”
It was a question he didn’t even want to consider, but Ayato had to ask. “If she doesn’t wake up…is her life in danger?”
“Oh, you don’t need to worry about that. If she stays like this, she’ll probably outlive you. That is, if it’s accurate to even call this being alive…”
“…I see…”
It was hardly a situation worth rejoicing over, but at least he could be reassured about that.
“I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but why have you still been looking after her?”
“What do you mean?” Yan responded dubiously.
“The former chairman, Danilo, has already passed away, right? So didn’t the contract end there?”
Because there had been a flow of money, the hospital had already been paid for Haruka’s treatment. But Ayato doubted it would have been enough to cover a full five years. The money had probably dried up long ago.
But—
“You dolt! Do you think I would fall so low as to abandon a patient?! Danilo might have died, but the contract is still valid!” Yan glared at him. “But now that it’s come to this, it’s up to you. If you want to transfer her to a different hospital, I won’t stop you.”
“…No. Please continue her treatment.”
He would have to contact his father, of course, but that seemed to be the best option.
