"Pant... pant...!"
The place I reached after running frantically was a hill.
Yes, the very hill where my clinic is.
Gasping for breath that had risen to my chin, I lay down on the grassy field.
The sky had, at some point, been stained with black paint. Countless stars blossomed beautifully on the pitch-black canvas.
I was too tired to soak in that hazy nostalgia.
I twisted my body to get a grip on my complicated mind. Even after running so much, my head still felt heavy.
Without the power of a Beast, my stamina was scraping the bottom. I didn't like my heavy body, but why was my mind in such a state?
As I was staring blankly at the night sky, I heard someone's footsteps.
A lump formed in my throat.
Who could it be? Johanna? Draco? Morgan? Or Gilgamesh?
I didn't want to see any of them. That's how I felt right now.
My true feelings might be different. I might want to be held in the arms of any of them and confess my struggles.
I slightly lifted my head at the sound of the approaching footsteps.
I can't even see well in the dark anymore.
Someone who had been under a tree stepped into the moonlight, revealing themselves.
"...Morgan."
"Have you enjoyed your leisure time enough?"
"Why are you wearing those clothes?"
Morgan was wearing Tonelico's clothes.
She, dressed in the attire from her days as the Witch of the Rain, looked down at herself once.
"Because the time has come to fulfill a long-held dream. A slight change of pace, perhaps?"
"Don't talk like that. You're..."
"Yes, I've changed."
Morgan, returning to her stern face, gave a familiar smile.
"I've changed, and so have you, brother."
Looking at Morgan made me feel a surge of emotion.
It was an incredibly unpleasant feeling, and the fact that it was the exact same emotion I felt when I saw Johanna made me loathe myself.
If my feelings are the same when seeing Johanna, who did nothing but be considerate of me, and Morgan, who deceived and even hypnotized me,
Isn't that the worst?
"The Holy Grail War will end tonight, Cael."
"...That has nothing to do with me."
"It does."
Crunch. The grass bent as Morgan took another step closer to me.
Morgan's shadow fell over me as I lay on the ground.
Her expression was blank.
"I see you've dealt with those Chaldea folks. Well done."
"This emotion isn't something you created, is it?"
"You know the charm was already taken by the Beast Emperor. I didn't expect the Beast to be drawn in by a brief illusion, but in a way, it turned out for the best."
I didn't want to hear it, but Morgan continued to talk, unfazed.
"Tonight, we will repel Chaldea and have a decisive battle with Gilgamesh."
"...Over the Holy Grail?"
"Over you, of course, Cael, my brother."
Morgan gave a bitter smile.
I know that face. It's an expression that goes beyond confidence to arrogance, one that doesn't even consider the possibility of failure.
That face was once reassuring, and once terrifying.
And now...
"Fine. Do whatever."
Surprisingly, I felt nothing.
Conversely, Morgan was surprised by my attitude.
"How unexpected. I thought you would be angry, Cael."
"Really? Then I guess I should be happy, since it's the first time I've won against you."
Morgan didn't react. Instead, she sat down right next to the patch of grass where I was lying, hugging her knees.
My eyes were drawn to such a girlish posture.
"...What."
Our eyes meeting was no accident.
Unlike my curt reply, Morgan gave a bright smile.
But the words she spoke were chillingly cold.
"I have no intention of apologizing for my actions now, Cael."
I hadn't expected it anyway.
"Still, I need you. The Cael who loved me, and the you now who despises me, are the same person to me."
My head throbbed.
Morgan's words were the same as what Johanna had said.
Did she know because she was watching me? Or was it just an expression that came from the heart?
There's no end to it if I keep getting caught up in these thoughts. The day I understand Morgan's thoughts will never come anyway.
The memories of the Fae I have end at the ashen island of Orkney.
The Tonelico-Morgan-after that is someone I don't know.
If a stranger betrayed me, shouldn't I be indifferent?
There should be no reason to be sad or happy over a single word from her.
"So I'm supposed to live in your Fae Kingdom forever? That sounds really fun."
Even with my sarcasm, Morgan's expression remained unchanged.
"Cael. We have plenty of time."
Morgan slowly leaned her body onto mine.
Her face was so close, it felt like we would touch if I just tipped over.
"For 6,000 years, I've felt my emotions slowly being worn away."
"...You're not trying to ask for pity now, are you?"
"It's just my story."
Morgan spoke normally, but it sounded like a song.
"Expectation was the same as betrayal, and trust was as flimsy as sand. I can no longer feel the warmth in the words my sister Mia once told me. Perhaps in all of this."
"Are you mocking the fact that I trusted you? And you dare to bring up Mia? Considering what you did—!"
"I just want to tell you that everything you're worrying about right now is, in fact, meaningless."
Her smile suited the night sky. It was as if the twinkling stars were pouring down on her.
"Because 6,000 years will allow all of this to be dismissed as a 'single moment'."
I shut my mouth.
Morgan's eyes, as she spoke of 6,000 years, were empty.
But as she looked at me, she was consistently warm.
It was as if she was filled with the emotion of ecstasy.
"I know you well, my brother Cael. You hate me, but the words I just said have made you pity me again, haven't they?"
Before I could even feel a chill, Morgan stole my lips.
"Just like that, slowly, your feelings for me will change. I guarantee it won't even take 6,000 years, no, not even 100."
Morgan, who had been there for a brief moment, was now dressed in her queenly attire.
"In the end, that's the kind of person you are, my brother. Don't deny your own nature."
A black veil brushed against my hair and slowly returned to her.
The purple lipstick had transferred to my lips, now slightly faded.
Watching her back as she walked away, stepping on the grass, I asked.
"Then, what's your nature?"
Her high-heeled shoes didn't stop.
"If my nature is that I can't help but love someone to the point of killing myself, then what about you?"
Morgan summoned a staff in her hand. When the staff lightly swept the ground, hundreds, thousands of circuits shot up from the earth.
"Is the Tonelico who said she would create a warm country really gone now?"
Morgan is definitely here.
But that body, her inner self, didn't seem to belong to the person I knew.
There was no bright smile.
The gentleness that treated everyone with kindness was also gone.
"Is it because I wrote that fairy tale? Is it my fault for planting the dream of building a warm country? Is that why you suffered for 6,000 years?"
My throat tightened.
"Why have you, like me, become unable to trust anyone..."
Morgan disappeared in an instant.
To me, that action seemed like an affirmation.
For a long time, I couldn't leave the grassy field where Morgan had been.
It wasn't just me.
Everything was falling apart.