Chapter 92 - c

"Lady Fortuna entrusted her to me. She is assisting the others in battle. It shouldn't be long before she sweeps the forest clean of enemies …"

"…It pains me to say this, but that will be somewhat difficult."

The man made a bitter face, which caused Archi to go, "Eh?"

"We have confirmed the presence of one of the Archbishops of the Seven Deadly Sins: Greed, head of the radical faction. The Lord Archbishop has engaged him in combat, but the situation cannot be resolved by simply driving him off."

"An Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins…but what problem is there beyond him?"

"The demon beast Black Serpent has been released into the forest."

"Th-the Black Serpent—?!"

The man's words rocked Archi. He gazed back toward the forest with a look of disbelief.

"That's crazy—it's not possible! The Black Serpent is a pure calamity, even more than the White Whale and the Great Rabbit—a natural disaster that obeys no one. The timing of its arrival, right as this attack is going on— that's…"

"A being…a Witch, who can make that possible, has come to this forest."

"Witch? Witch, you say? That's even crazier talk! The witches besides the Witch of Jealousy are long destroyed, and the Witch of Jealousy should herself be sealed in the sands of a far-off…"

"There was a hidden Witch— Her name is Pandora. She is a part of the Witch Cult, the world's forbidden Witch."

The man spoke as if he were wringing out every word, leaving Archi agape, like a bucket of water had roused him from his sleep.

An Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins, and even a Witch he had never heard of before, had arrived—and what kept Archi's heart from crumbling into despair was the small heartbeat he could feel through his own chest.

He'd been entrusted with something. Archi could not back away from it.

"…Lady Fortuna entrusted me with Emilia so that she might escape. Whatever happens to our homeland, I must at least protect this girl…protect our hope!"

"…I shall accompany you. Old as I might be, I am still part of the

Romanée-Conti family."

The man was roused by Archi's words and he bowed deeply to the young elf who literally nestled his bundle of hope against his breast.

With a flutter of his habit sleeve, the aged man leaned forward and impressively kicked off the ground. Then he trained his eyes toward the path leading out of the forest, intending to guide them—

"—No!"

The instant they broke into a run, the man suddenly shouted, and the urgency in his voice made Archi immediately stop. As Archi opened his eyes wide, wondering what was going on, the man stood, both arms spread wide.

"What a blunder… To think it would come so quickly…"

"What has…? Wha, huh?!"

The man murmured in anguish, bewildering Archi—a moment later, the man's arms fell from their shoulders. Like a doll with bad stitching, his outstretched limbs detached completely, just like that.

No blood spewed from the fallen arms or from where they had been severed. In fact, the arms were shriveled in an unnatural way that had nothing to do with age, rotting like tree roots starved of water.

"The Black Serpent's vicious tongue…! Please flee!"

"But!"

"It is too late for me…"

Forcefully shouting for Archi to run, the man looked back, his face rapidly losing all color. Red and black spots came over his neck, which poked out of his habit, and his face was collapsing to the point where it seemed his eyeballs might fall out.

"Bu, bubu…aaa, bu…!"

Moaning in anguish, the armless man collapsed onto the ground, his upper torso writhing. Black blood gushed out of his eye sockets, nostrils, earlobes, and more places, until finally, he stopped moving at all.

The man's final moments left Archi, let alone young Emilia, in a panic.

"The crucible of disease…the plague-bearing demon beast the Black

Serpent…!!"

In a raspy voice, Archi covered young Emilia's eyes as he invoked the name of the enemy that had slain their companion.

Of course, it did not react to his voice. However, in the gaps between Archi's and Emilia's ragged breathing, a distinct sound echoed, like a gigantic creature licking its lips.

It felt like a hunter, waiting for its prey's fear to heighten before it— "—Sh-shit!!"

Realizing the approaching danger, Archi yelled a curse and fled. He did not know which way to run. This was the enemy's hunting ground. They'd been herded into it unawares.

He'd put as much distance as he could between him and the man's corpse. If possible, he'd leave the forest entirely. Focusing only on the rigid presence of Emilia pressing against his chest, Archi desperately fled from the menace. Flee, flee, the young elf continued to flee, resisting with all his might—

"Ah—"

While getting ready to launch himself forward, he felt a scalding heat run up his right ankle. The instant he realized he'd been licked, his willpower crumbled.

The wicked tongue was slithering up his bare flesh. The illness it caused spread across his skin, manifesting as reddish-black burn scars.

The instant he saw what was taking place, Archi turned a palm toward his own right leg.

"…Fulla!"

Without hesitation, he used a blade of wind to send his diseased right leg flying off from the knee.

Needing support to remain upright, he angled his falling body against a tree. Archi, breaking out in a thick sweat at the excruciating pain of losing his leg, gritted his teeth, enduring the sensation of his brain catching on fire as he continued to chant.

"Hyuma…!"

With the sound of air cracking, he froze the stump of his own severed leg. White steam rose from his wound, and Archi raised up a renewed scream over his extremely crude method of stopping the bleeding.

It had been a bold, drastic decision. The speed and the means he employed proved the depth of his resolve and his skill—and then there was the fact that he had not let go of Emilia once during that entire process.

"Archi…?"

With her face firmly pressed against his arm, Emilia could not see what had happened. Archi forced a smile onto his face, sitting up as he downplayed the greatest agony he had ever experienced.

"It's nothing… It's all right… It's all right, so…!"

His words fragmented, Archi lied to Emilia that nothing had happened. His actions were worthy of respect—and yet, cruel fate would greet his determination, no matter how incredible, with scorn.

The remaining part of his frozen right leg was losing color above the knee, desiccated like a baked stone. It was as if the very earth was drying up. The remainder of Archi's right leg had begun dying; the disease would not stop there.

"…Emilia. Um, you see the white flowers on the other side of those two trees?"

"…Y-yeah."

Released by Archi, who sat with his back against a large tree, Emilia put both her feet on the ground and looked in the direction he pointed. Gazing at the pair of trees and the white flowers beyond, she nodded.

"Can you run in the direction of the flowers? Past the flowers…straight ahead…"

"R-run… I can run. But…"

"Then run…"

Staring at the white flowers, young Emilia caught her breath as Archi spoke those words to her.

They were brief words with which to send her off. Even as hesitance hovered in her eyes, it dawned on her that Archi's state was nothing like normal as she looked between him and the flowers over and over.

If she ran, she would be alone. Once again, someone would disappear from her life.

"It's all right, Emilia. You won't…be alone…"

"Archi…"

"Now, run. No matter what you hear, don't turn back… Run!"

Archi's sharp voice made Emilia jump. She took one step forward, then broke into a run. She forced herself to not look back because Archi said not to.

Archi's voice, Fortuna's voice, Geuse's voice—all reverberated in the little girl's mind.

—She wanted to believe that if she did as she was told, everything would go back to how it used to be.

"That's right. There you go. Run, run…just like how you always ran around and gave us so much trouble…"

Archi spoke those words through a thin smile, staring at the back of the girl who was already hard to see in the distance as he stripped off the sleeves of his tunic.

The shriveling corruption had already reached his lower chest. He no longer felt like he could move either leg. His flesh had lost its color, its texture becoming like stone, thoroughly reminiscent of some kind of repulsive demon beast.

He heard a sound. Sss, sss. It was the sound of a demon beast licking its lips after spotting its prey right before it.

It came as if to steal away the escaping girl, the forest's hope, and to rob all meaning from the tiny, remaining flicker of Archi's ending life.

"As if…anyone would let you pass…"

Eyes burning with the will to fight on, Archi ignored his immobile legs, using the strength of his arms alone to sit himself up. The ominous sound stopped…as if the beast was taking renewed interest, captivated by the prey it had presumed stricken down.

It was because he sensed his own impending death that he'd sent the girl as far as possible away from her own.

"Lady Fortuna…that girl…will probably be all right."

Sss, sss, was the sound that heralded the approach of the end.

Hearing this sound, knowing that it represented nothing less than the greatest peril to his life, Archi proudly smiled.

" "

Exhausted as that smile might have been, it never faded.

4

—The forest had already changed so dramatically that it seemed to have forgotten its original form.

It was a land in a mournful state, as if some angry, rampaging, giant serpent had violated the earth in its passing.

Numerous trees had been mowed down; many rested upon their sides, snapped at the roots. A number of great holes with no visible bottom pockmarked the surface of the ground. If someone claimed that this was the aftermath of some unnatural being purging the surface world, the overwhelming destruction would have convinced many of the preposterous explanation.

A single man—the one who had wrought the shocking spectacle—stood at the center of the destruction. His face marred by fresh blood, out of breath but his spirit undiminished, he was the great sinner who had embraced inside him a Deadly Sin that suited his body not, gaining power at the cost of whittling away his own life—Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti.

With sheer force of will, the man named Geuse forced down that unnatural power as he stood. The Authority one perhaps ought to call invisible arms had given Geuse the means to defy an Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins

—

"—You know, it really is time for you to acknowledge this is useless."

Even having obtained power at such great cost, his target Regulus was completely unharmed and even scornfully laughing at him.

Standing amid a hovering cloud of dust and unnatural destruction, Regulus seemed bored. The sight of him unaffected by any of it was so warped that it was as if someone had put a sticker onto a finished painting.

"Even after doing…this much…!"

"It's time to face up and realize it already, yeah? We're different. You and I are actors meant for different stages. It's not an issue of whether you can beat me. No one can beat me. No one can hurt me. Sword Saint or dragon,

it's all useless. All of it, every last bit…useless."

Speaking bluntly to Geuse, who was coughing up blood, Regulus nonchalantly waved an arm. The gesture, as if shooing a fly, instantly put Geuse on guard, offering his flesh to the black power wriggling inside him. He prepared to deal with it, come what may—then his right arm was sent flying.

"Wha…?!"

"I'm bored stiff of seeing that reaction, too. I went through the trouble of giving you time to spend with your wife and all. I wanted at least some kind

of reward for that, but it looks like I got my hopes up for nothing."

"Ngh…what are…? Guh, agh! Whoaaa!!"

Pressing down on the remains of his severed arm, Geuse tumbled spectacularly. Upon closer inspection, he had also been wounded in both his legs, where ugly gouges marred his thighs as if beasts had hungrily torn the flesh off them.

He endured the pain, blood frothing at his lips all the while. The pitiful sight made Regulus grimace.

"In the end, see, this is all your resolve and determination and all that stuff amounts to. But don't mind that too much. It's not you; it's everyone. No one can hold more than their own two hands can carry. You have to live

within your means. That's normal. You understand, right?" "Gah, aah, aah…"

"Really, I hate all this. Maybe you think I like hurting other people out of some kind of sadistic hobby, but you would be mistaken, and I would take great insult at that mischaracterization. I'm not doing this because I particularly want to. It only seems like I'm bullying you because you're weak. I don't have any desire to do things like this any longer. For good or ill, I, a satisfied man, do not want to interfere with anyone else. I am content, without want. You need to accept that."

The force of the bleeding had weakened, and Geuse's voice had grown too meager for yelling. His raspy, ragged breaths and the spasms of his body invited pity, like an insect on the verge of expiring.

With Geuse thus on the brink of death, Regulus looked down at him, speaking without malice or enmity or anything else. He felt there was no need for personal emotions to come into play when he was merely listing off facts.

To Regulus Corneas, Geuse's desperate actions were the same as a breeze—no, such a gentle wind would have at least rustled his forelocks. Accordingly, his actions did not even amount to that.

As she stood in the destroyed forest, Pandora showed no more sign of change than Regulus did. The very embodiment of beauty, her lovely visage, let alone the white cloth that enveloped her small, slender torso, remained utterly unaffected.

"Among the masses, not everyone can think like you, and certainly not everyone will reach the same lofty realm. You are more special than others. You should be content that you are so. Your completed form is marvelous. And they, the incomplete, are marvelous in their own way."

"I do not seek your praise, nor do I endorse your opinion that they are marvelous or anything of the sort. At any rate, neither I nor the Black Serpent needed to show up, Lady Pandora. You could have handled this much all by yourself."

Showing no sign of joy over her words of praise, Regulus indicated the forest with both hands as he spoke to Pandora. She gracefully acknowledged his words with a nod.

"Yes, that might well be the case. However, I needed to see with my own eyes just how earnestly people strive for their revered goals and just how lovely they can be while doing so."

"The gist is, you wanted to see the desperate faces of people backed into a corner, didn't you? Ha-ha-ha, if that's all, you should just put it simply so people can understand. Making a needless excuse feels like it only wastes my time."

"I find that way of taking it to be quite adorable."

As a smile that could charm the heart came over Pandora, Regulus replied with a wicked smile of his own. From there, he turned his eyes toward the collapsed Geuse, walking over to inflict the final blow.

"Well, even if this body dies, it's not like you don't have spares. Dragging what's inside you and keeping a grip on the scruff of your neck will make dealing with you easier. For someone who made me use up all this time, you really are a talentless hack."

As he spoke, Regulus lifted his foot over Geuse's head. It was clear he would squash Geuse's head like an overripe melon— Just before that, a voice interrupted. "Al Hyuma!!"

In accordance with the chant, the world accepted the transformation of mana; with a cracking sound, it became destruction made manifest. The sound of the atmosphere crackling made Regulus lift his head, scowling in disgust.

"If it's not one thing, then it's another…!"

Regulus clicked his tongue— The next moment, a mighty spear of ice sufficient to blot out the sky slammed into his face, and the resulting quake, having nowhere else to go, became a ferocious shock wave that enveloped Regulus, completely crushing his slender frame.

There were blasts of wind and tremors of the earth, repeating so much as to completely lose count. Fragments of shattered ice scattered all across the ground, changing the scenery to the point that one would doubt it was ever a forest to begin with.

Light reflected off the glimmering ice, and in that chaotic, luminous world —a silver-haired woman stood at the fallen man's side.

"Geuse! Geuse, hold on! What did they…? Ahhh, what should I do…?!"

"Lady Fortuna, is that you…?"

Responding to that voice, light returned to Geuse's eyes, though he was barely breathing. It was unmistakable that his life was in peril even so, but as Geuse barely kept his consciousness tethered, Fortuna nodded to him several times.

"Yes, yes, that's right, it's me. Geuse, to see you like this…"

"It iiiis fine… A body of flesh must someday perish… The finger who entruuusted this body to me surely understood as much… More importantly, is Lady Emilia…?"

"I left her to Archi…the next Guardian, so she could have a chance to escape outside. I'm sure they're all right, thanks to you."

"Iiis that so…? That iiis very…good."

"—It's not remotely good whatsoever!!"

As Geuse relaxed his blood-ridden face in relief, his words made Regulus cry out with an angry voice.

Blasting apart the ice-covered soil, Regulus brushed away white mist with both arms, his expression indignant. He plucked at his head, enmity resting in his eyes like nothing before.

"Who do you think you are, coming back and pulling that out of the blue? I was about to stomp and crush his head just now! With what right, with whose permission, do you dare! Interfere! With me…me me me me me me me me me me ME?!!"

In a fit of rage, Regulus squatted and plunged both his arms into the ground. He proceeded to swing them upward, tossing soft soil toward Fortuna and Geuse.

His demeanor was truly like that of a child, throwing a tantrum and scattering earth about—

"No! That debris… You must evade all of it…!"

"Eh?"

Fortuna was ignoring the shower of dirt and trying to refine her mana for a counterattack when Geuse pushed her down. The action he chose over counterattack, over defense, was to push her straight to the ground without even breaking her fall— Fortuna raised her voice, questioning Geuse's decision…and then she saw.

The sand and pebbles Regulus threw had opened "countless holes" in the surface of the ground.

These were literally countless holes. Almost like the marks raindrops left upon parched soil, the dirt Regulus had thrown gouged the ground with such penetrating power that she could not see where they bottomed out.

The might of the attack was obvious from one glance at the fallen trees caught in its area of effect. They had been turned into wood chips from the countless, tiny holes punched into them; a human body subjected to the same would have surely turned to bloody mist.

It was nigh unbelievable destructive power, and most frightening of all was—

"Hey now! What did you go dodging it for?! Just soak it up and turn into mincemeat! That goes for the talentless hack Petelgeuse and that woman over there, too! I would've been fine adding you as my seventy-ninth wife, so what's with this stupid behavior, huh? Huh?!"

Whining loudly, Regulus thrust his arms into the ground's surface once more— He could do this consecutively.

He was a being who could not be harmed by some of the deadliest spells in existence yet could kill by scattering some dirt and pebbles. In spite of this, his mental state was as immature as an infant's, destructively egotistical beyond anyone's reach.

This dangerous being, like a badly raised child who was liable to bite anyone depending on his mood, had been granted power on par with a dragon —that was how Fortuna appraised the vile man before her.

"If you don't like me taking one limb off, I'll take all four! I'll make you regret making a fool out of me…out of Greed!!"

"—Please wait, Archbishop Corneas."

"Aah?"

Just when Regulus was about to resume his attacks, the platinum-haired beauty urged him to wait.

Still squatting, Regulus looked back at Pandora. His eyes were still thickly colored with anger, and it seemed even his ally, Pandora, was in danger of winding up on the receiving end.

With that dangerous look still in his eyes, Regulus spoke to Pandora, his lips trembling.

"…What is it, Lady Pandora? Right now, I am in the middle of punishing the louts infringing upon my rights. What do you want from me? Whatever you intend, watch your words and answer me right now…!"

"Please restrain your anger, Archbishop Corneas. I will not permit you to kill him, or her, in this place. Do you not feel anything when you gaze upon them?"

" "

Pandora's words were unexpected to Fortuna and Geuse alike. It was unthinkable that she, an enemy to both of them, would plead with Regulus to spare their lives.

Yet, in response to her words, Regulus, who had given himself over to rage, stopped moving. Then he looked at Fortuna and Geuse, finally turning back to Pandora.

"Did you just…order me to restrain my anger?"

His tone was quiet, sounding emotionless to the ear. However, that calm crumbled a moment later.

"—You've got some nerve butting in where you're not wanted, woman!!!"

In that situation, where everyone was trying to have their own way, Regulus's short temper hit its limit and exploded in the worst way possible.

Though they had been both on the same side, though he had paid respect to his superior, Regulus hurled sand toward Pandora without hesitation, seemingly having forgotten their relationship entirely.

The might of the earthen shrapnel was immense. The dirt he scattered ravaged any part of the forest that was in its line of fire with overwhelming force, bearing down upon the beautiful girl—and this girl, a goddess of beauty, a living masterpiece, was cruelly transformed into a cloud of blood.

"—You're kidding me."

Defenseless and showered by the soil, Pandora was flayed apart, leaving Fortuna agape. It was a natural reaction. Her reviled opponent had died a dog's death at the hands of a former comrade.

Her supernatural nature was rendered meaningless, the girl's dead flesh fated to be eaten amid a ravaged forest.

"This is what happens when someone gives me lip. Why can't people just treat me with the consideration anyone else is due? Don't get in my way. Don't interrupt when I'm talking. Don't object to what I do. Is that so hard to

ask? Hey, you two over there…what do you think?"

Having murdered Pandora, though the madness residing in his eyes remained unexhausted, Regulus turned back toward the other two.

There was no room to appreciate that the number of their enemies had been reduced by one. Even if they no longer faced two mighty foes, they could not overcome their predicament without some means of dealing with their seemingly impervious enemy.

Twice, Regulus had endured Fortuna's surprise attacks unharmed. She hated to admit it, but she could not defeat him—nor could Geuse, and any further attempt to do so would put his life at risk.

"Let us buy time so that Emilia might escape…"

"In that case… Lady Fortuna…leave this to me…"

Geuse had arrived at the same conclusion as Fortuna yet continued onward to a different choice for bringing that outcome about.

"No matter how much blood I must shed…until this flesh of mine yields,

I…I will buy time…so please, Lady Fortuna, escape…"

"Don't say stupid things."

To Geuse, who lay within her arms and had resolved to be a stone to cast away, Fortuna spoke in a gentle voice, her cheeks softening.

Despite the situation, she found the fact that she could smile even so somewhat mysterious and something to be proud of.

"Are you saying to leave you here and run? If I was going to do that, I'd never have come back. I even parted ways with Emilia to return. How can you tell me to run now?"

"But…why iiis it, then, you have returned…? I am…"

"—To not let you die…and if you must die, to be at your side."

With Fortuna's violet eyes staring at him, Geuse's eyes, misty with blood, opened wide.

Fortuna held Geuse, who was lighter from the loss of one arm and so much blood, pressing him close to her as she spoke.

"What awaits me in a world without you, in a forest where you will never come? I am too weak to live long in a world that doesn't have you in it."

"You, weak…?"

"I am weak. All I did was put up a brave front for you and Emilia."

Fortuna lifted Geuse up, looking at him with a face that somehow seemed freed of all burdens. Trembling, Geuse leaned on her arm for support, the two embracing each other as they faced forward.

Gazing at the pair, Regulus clicked his tongue, disgusted from the bottom of his heart.

"Not only do you ignore my question for a prolonged period of time, but now you've gotten yourselves all worked up? Makes me wonder what in the world could you be thinking? What's the meaning of this? I've already shown you the superiority of my power, explained everything in easy-to-understand ways, so why are you going We can do it over and over? What the hell are you thinking?!"

"What a tiresome and noisy man. Get a clue already. For us, there is only one answer."

"Yeeees, I suppose so…"

Fortuna and Geuse exchanged glances, their voices in tandem as they spoke to the indignant Regulus.

""—Who knows and who cares, moron?""

Their voices overlapped, and Fortuna stuck up her middle finger for good measure.

Uttering those biting words together, Fortuna and Geuse gathered their power in their taunt, making Regulus's face red with rage.

"Fine with me! I'll make both of you indistinguishable puddles of blood and use you to fertilize this filthy forest—"

"—I told you to wait, did I not, Archbishop Corneas?"

For her own convenience, Pandora impeded Regulus for the third time— Dancing softly in the sky, she pressed her slender hand down upon Regulus's head, forcing the disturbing man's body to sink without any apparent resistance from the ground. In an instant, he was buried from the tips of his toes to the crown of his head. As Pandora landed right beside him, Regulus stared up at her from directly below.

"Over and over again… What does it take to kill you…?!"

"I forgive your violent actions, your violent deeds, all these things. You have already fulfilled the purpose for which I brought you here. It is fine for you to go now."

"After calling me here, you tell me to go now that you're satisfied? Just how much do you think you can make a fool out of me…?"

"Is it that unacceptable? Then I shall take care of it. Archbishop Corneas cannot possibly be here. He is spending time at his mansion, surrounded by his wives."

"Wa—"

The instant she made that one-sided argument, Regulus tried to shout something as he suddenly vanished from sight.

It wasn't that he sank deeper into the ground. His very presence had truly, suddenly disappeared. As a matter of fact, the place where he had assuredly been bore no trace of burial at all.

It was as if, when Pandora said, …cannot possibly be here, the very world had affirmed her words.

"At my request, the boisterous one has departed the stage. Now we can take our time to chat, yes?"

"…Before that, may I ask one thing? You should be dead and in pieces, yes?"

Fortuna posed that question to Pandora, who was smiling gracefully and standing there like it was the most natural thing. Surely, that smile, along with that graceful body, had been turned into fragments of bloody flesh and scattered around the forest in its entirety.

And yet, the tragic state Fortuna was certain she'd witnessed was gone, and the dead had unnaturally come back to life. To Fortuna, who was unable to conceal her shock at that fact, Pandora tilted her head. "Perhaps…you are 'mistaken' about something?"

"—!"

Pandora's words, spoken without malice, sent a deep shudder through Fortuna.

Though it should not have been so, the world had changed out of respect for Pandora's opinion. The scene Fortuna herself had seen with her own eyes had been denied, and history had been supernaturally rewritten with a scene she had no recollection of seeing.

—A corpse had been erased, and Pandora had returned to life. Regulus had vanished, along with all traces of his presence.

Moreover, the consequences did not end at Pandora being safe and sound, with the hole Regulus had been in now buried. When she first realized the effects, Fortuna nearly let out an unwitting yelp.

Opening her eyes wide, Fortuna moved her trembling fingers toward Geuse, who was assuredly on the brink of death— His torn-off arm and the grave wounds to his legs had been healed and restored.

"It is a simple matter. If Archbishop Corneas was never here, it follows that all the results of Archbishop Corneas's actions would also vanish. Although, you may consider the healing of your wounds a gesture of goodwill on my part…"

"G-Geuse, that arm…"

"There's nothing amiss. My body…is sound, aside from what resides inside it."

"I have not gone so far as to overwrite the fact that you incorporated the Witch Factor into yourself. I wish to praise your actions and the actions of the woman who returned for your sake. Please think of this as a kindness from me."

Geuse was bewildered by Pandora's elegant smile even as he acknowledged that his own body had been healed. Fortuna heard the words from a distance as she felt the ground crumble under her own feet.

Pandora, her hated foe, was not an opponent Fortuna could take on. Everything that had happened in the forest that day had far exceeded Fortuna's puny imagination.

Or perhaps, at that rate, everything that had happened would simply vanish into thin—

"Lady Fortuna, please get ahold of yourself!"

"—! Geuse!"

As Fortuna wavered, Geuse used his restored right hand to pinch her cheek. Fortuna was surprised by the pain as Geuse grasped both her shoulders and continued.

"I am sure you have doubts. I am sure you are bewildered. However, these are thiiiings we must leave for another time. Right now, what is important…is that we do what we can for Lady Emilia's sake!"

Little by little, his desperate plea restored Fortuna's waning vigor.

Yes. It was just as Geuse had said. She was afraid, not knowing what this incomprehensible foe might do. But surely, she already knew the most frightening thing of all.

—If this woman's objectives involved her own precious, beloved daughter…

"Whatever happened, I don't care. Right now—!"

"Iiiit falls to the two of us to strike her down! If she iiiis defeated, the militants assaulting the forest will surely retreat! —We wiiiill save Lady Emilia!"

Geuse's words, and her feelings for her beloved daughter, made Fortuna's internal hate grow white-hot.

Before, she'd resigned herself to never seeing Emilia ever again. Up until a moment before, she'd intended to see that resolve through. But now, her hopes and her ideals resounded powerfully in her chest.

She'd save Emilia. She'd return home to Emilia. She would be together with Geuse and Emilia again—

"—O ancient, mystic ice, so cold and white even time shudders, ice so great the soul sleeps eternal."

The mana she had gathered up to strike down Regulus whirled about, seeking a place to explode. She gave that latent energy form, purpose, duty; it took shape, ready to freeze the world.

The sky, the very air moaned, giving birth to spears of ice so enormous, a giant might have wielded them. The tips of these spears, exceeding ten in number, pointed toward their foe, like a bouquet of flowers inviting the opponent to split asunder and rest in an eternal, icy grave. "My life, my duty, my love… For all their sakes, I…!"

At Fortuna's side, Geuse embraced his own shoulders with both hands as he spun those words of bloody resolve. Power raged under his tattered habit, and his healed body began falling into ruin once more. Blood gushed, bones cracked, and life dissolved.

Seeing the pair's resolve, Pandora merely spread her arms wide, her cheeks flushed.

"Now, come— Let me taste the embrace of your tenacity until the bitter end."

Intending to rip that smile off her face, the pair's power made the world tremble.

And then—

5

—She had already gone well past the white flowers Archi had pointed out.

And yet, her legs did not cease. She was told not to stop running, so she kept doing as she was told.

Her breath leaped. Emilia earnestly stretched her tiny gait as far as it would go as she ran through the forest.

"Uu…uuuu!"

She shook her head. Tears were flowing. She desperately held back the sob that was threatening to leak out from the corner of her mouth.

What was going on and why was all this happening now?

Everyone probably knew something that she did not.

She didn't know anything about what she should do. Was there really nothing she could do?

Who was the one bullying Fortuna, Geuse, and Archi? What did she need to do to get those people back? What were they after—?

"Se…al…"

Back where she'd gotten separated from Geuse, the frightfully beautiful girl had said that word. Hadn't Fortuna and Archi both mentioned the same seal?

" "

She'd been told to keep running, but then she stopped. Even if she looked back, she'd long left behind the place where Archi was. She could not see him. Nor Fortuna. Nor Geuse.

"But…if—if I don't do…s-something…"

If the seal was connected to the people who had come into the forest, Emilia knew where she should go. If everyone was being hurt because of a thing like that—

—If they wanted such a thing, why not just give it to them?

She didn't know how to open the door. She didn't understand what meaning the seal held. She didn't know if it would change anything for the better. But the term seal was plenty.

Wanting to believe she could do something was not what drove the little girl to action.

It was hope—the hope that by going there, then surely, something would change—that pressed against the girl's back.

"If I go to that place… Ahhh, but…"

Thus deciding, Emilia tried to dash off but hesitated before taking the first step. She'd done too much running around blindly. Already, this forest, the forest that Emilia had grown up in, was not the forest Emilia knew. She'd lost track not only of where the seal was but also the settlement and the locations of her mother and Geuse.

"Uh, hu…!"

Confronted with her pathetic powerlessness, young Emilia could restrain her sobs no more.

Even though she had something she needed to do, she lacked the power to do it. Her mother was not there to rescue her in her time of need. She needed to do something for that very mother, and yet…

—It was then that Emilia's wholehearted, earnest feelings set into motion the being watching over her young, valiant spirit.

As Emilia wiped her flooding tears with a hand, her eyes widened as a faint light abruptly passed before them. When she lifted her face, she saw that her body was surrounded by countless glowing lights.

"Fairy…?"

Emilia called out to the fairies, the supernatural beings that Fortuna and Geuse had termed lesser spirits. They did not possess words, yet they

responded to Emilia's will, gently moving deeper into the forest—

After a slight delay, Emilia grasped the intent of the phosphorescent lights, which were blinking seemingly to guide her.

"You'll tell me where…?"

There was no reply. The lesser spirits only formed a trail of light leading deeper into the forest.

"If I go that way, I'll get to the seal? I'll be able to save Mom and everyone…?"

The trail of light grew brighter. Emilia wiped her tears away with all her might.

She couldn't stay there sobbing forever. She had her mother and Geuse and all kinds of other people to save, and when she'd broken down crying, the fairies had come to help her. How could she keep hanging her head?

"Yeah… Yeah, yeah!"

Nodding with a mix of thanks and determination, Emilia broke into a run, following the belt of light. She earnestly followed the brilliant path that was created by the phosphorescent glows, believing it was the sole hope she could cling to.

Leaping over holes and climbing over inclines, she made herself smaller as she raced through the gaps between tightly packed trees.

There were many paths where the lesser spirits could pass but Emilia could not. She tripped, branches scraping her cheek, and she fell, spitting out the dirt in her teeth as she rose once more.

"Huu, huu…!"

Her lungs hurt. Fluid dripped from her nose. She wiped off her teary and muddy face, getting angry at her scuffed knees as she ran.

With insufficient oxygen, Emilia found her vision wavering, and her consciousness was like a daydream as memories resurfaced.

Emilia remembered all the time she had spent in that forest, in that settlement, loved as she was.

—She remembered Fortuna's love.

She remembered days when she'd been scolded. Emilia also remembered crying and apologizing and Fortuna spending the whole night holding Emilia in her arms, continuing to stroke her head until morning, seemingly so that she would not wake alone.

Fortuna had not spoiled her and had been strict, but she had also given her such precious things. Even though she had a habit of saying she was not Emilia's real mother, Fortuna was Emilia's mother, her first and most important mother.

—She remembered how Archi and everyone else in the settlement were kind to them.

She understood there was just the tiniest bit of distance between them. She knew they were hesitant, now knowing exactly how to approach her. But everyone had always been gentle to her, and they had absolutely never hurt Emilia or Fortuna. Even the Princess Room was something everyone had worked hard to improve so Emilia would have an easier time. It was difficult being in that place, but she'd liked it anyway.

—She remembered hating Geuse so much.

He was related to the things the adults were hiding, and he'd gone and drawn out the smiling face that was for Emilia alone, so she thought she could never forgive him. Yet, when they'd met by chance, he'd cried the moment he set eyes on Emilia. He cried and cried, crying out of happiness, and so Emilia forgave him.

After all, those were kind tears. Remembering how Fortuna had put her at ease when Fortuna was hugging her, she'd stroked Geuse's head. She wanted to be at his side so that the crybaby wouldn't be lonely.

She'd thought he was so helpless. She'd thought she just couldn't abandon him.

—She remembered she loved everyone so much.

Fortuna. Geuse. Archi. Everyone. They were Emilia's precious, precious people.

"I can…still save everyone…!"

She wanted to sleep in the same bed with Fortuna again.

Next time, she wanted to invite Archi and everyone to the Princess Room.

Next time, she wanted to stomp on that impertinent crybaby Geuse's foot with all her strength.

She wanted to meet everyone again. "I'll be a good girl, so…"

Her vision hazy with tears, she slipped beyond the usual branches and trees of the familiar forest, her feet halting where the forest turned white. Her breath was ragged and her face was red when she finally reached the seal she'd been seeking—

"—Welcome. I have been waiting for you."

The girl with platinum hair stood waiting before the seal, spreading her arms wide, seemingly to welcome her arrival. 

CHAPTER 4

THE ETERNAL FREEZING OF THE GREAT ELIOR FOREST

1

—In that phantasmal scene, with everything dyed pure white, a beautiful girl stood, wearing nothing but a single piece of cloth.

It looked as if an artist had exchanged not only his own soul but that of many others, making a deal with some devil to attain the pinnacle of painting for the very first time.

"I am so glad that I found you. I've located the seal at long last, but I had no idea where the Key might be. But I have managed to find you, so I am deeply relieved."

"Why…are you here…?"

The smile the girl—Pandora—wore on her beautiful visage was like a fragrance that toyed with life itself. Posing a question to the girl with such an obviously abnormal presence made Emilia's voice tremble. In response, Pandora brought her palms together before her, smiling broadly like someone about to reveal a secret as some sort of grand finale.

"Tee-hee, surprised, aren't you? It's quite simple, actually. This seal is our goal. We came to look for it… Therefore, my being here was inevitable." The reply Pandora gave was not the answer Emilia sought.

Emilia was trying to ask how Pandora could be here. The last time Emilia had seen her, Geuse had been keeping the strange white figure and her from going anywhere— "Why…are you here…?"

"—? Ahhh, I am sorry. I gave a rather odd reply, didn't I? What you want to know concerns Archbishop Romanée-Conti and your mother, doesn't it?" "—!"

Pandora's belated comprehension made Emilia audibly clench her teeth.

A proper answer for a proper question. She wanted to ask. She wanted to know. But at the same time, she didn't. After all, if Pandora was there, what had happened to Geuse?

"Please rest easy."

To young Emilia's distress, Pandora spoke that one phrase as a preamble, her charming smile deepening. Her expression flooded with what seemed like simple consideration, wanting to wipe that gloom from Emilia's face.

"The Archbishop Romanée-Conti and your mother you are so concerned about are both quite safe and sound."

"R-really…?"

"Yes, really— my believers and I have tried to avoid hurting everyone as much as possible. Just as I told you earlier, this seal is our goal. It is not necessary to sacrifice anyone for it."

Pandora's deluge of words, spoken in the kindest possible way, softly melted Emilia's unease and tension away. Relief slowly permeated her chest.

If she could believe Pandora, Fortuna and Geuse were safe, and perhaps things for everyone in the forest had not gone as terribly as she had imagined.

If that was true—

"Once you finish with the seal, you'll leave…?"

" "

"O-once you're done dealing with the s-seal, you'll leave the forest?

You'll leave without doing anything horrible to everyone?"

"—Yes, of course. It is not my desire that there be unnecessary casualties."

Responding to Emilia's clumsy plea, Pandora made a promise, deeply bowing her head.

After that, Pandora pointed to the sealed door, causing the teary Emilia to cock her head.

"Therefore, would you kindly hand over the Key? Once I am finished with my business, I will immediately withdraw from this forest."

"K-Key…?"

"Yes, the Key. This seal takes the shape of a door because it cannot be opened without the Key. And surely, that Key is in your possession."

"I don't know anything about that…"

When Pandora made that firm assertion, the clueless Emilia shook her head in denial.

As a matter of fact, she couldn't remember any such thing. Emilia did not recall ever carrying something like a key, and in the first place, the seal itself had been kept secret from Emilia. She couldn't think of any possible way for her to have this Key to a seal she didn't even know about until just recently.

And yet—

"I cannot call hiding it from me very wise."

"Y-you're wrong…!! I really— I really don't know! I don't have anything like a key! No one gave me a key! I can't open this seal!"

"Is that so? —Well, I will have to rummage through every corner of the forest to search for the Key, then."

Seemingly disappointed in Emilia's reply, Pandora lowered her eyes, looking very sad.

Her words and gesture made Emilia's body tremble. Pandora seemed genuinely sympathetic toward Emilia. But no matter how she felt, she undoubtedly intended to "rummage through" the forest, and its people, until she got what she wanted.

Instinctively understanding that Pandora was fully capable of following through, Emilia desperately tried to think of something.

"I-I'll open it! I'll open it!!"

"Ohhh, really? I'm so glad. You really do have the Key, don't you?"

When Emilia raised her voice, fear racing through her, Pandora's expression brightened like the sunrise. Not noticing how the abrupt change frightened the little girl, Pandora continued.

"But of course you do. You must have the Key— After all, whatever you may look like, you are still a Witch's daughter."

"Witch…?"

"Now, please take care of the seal. If you open this door, I will depart, immediately at that."

Pandora's face was filled with joy, looking like she could barely contain her impatience as she yielded the stage to Emilia.

Even as Pandora's words set her mind astir, Emilia approached the door in her stead. Firmly closed and so tall that she had to crane her neck to see it all, the door felt very weighty and oppressive.

" "

She already said she would open it, and here she stood before the door. However, she had no idea how to open it.

The one time she investigated the seal, Emilia had tried getting past it. No matter how much she pushed or pulled or even climbed over it, the door never budged. That wouldn't change now.

The door, as cold as ice, silently and emotionlessly rejected Emilia's tiny palm.

"Ha! …Haaa…ha!… Ah."

Her heart rate quickened abnormally, and she could hear the noisy sound of blood flowing in her head. The inside of her chest grew hot, and the depths of her belly grew cold. Her leaping heart threatened to jump right out of her mouth, and yet, the tips of her fingers felt heavy, as if packed with lead. Though she willed them to move with all her might, they would not.

—If she didn't open this door, something terrible would happen to everyone, she was sure of it.

As fear and despair made her mind a blank, Emilia's consciousness moved further and further away— "—Think of yourself as the Key."

When Emilia sought something to cling to, that voice smoothly slid into Emilia's earlobes.

—I am…the Key.

Doing as the voice commanded, Emilia's mind settled on a single answer.

That instant, Emilia felt something heavy in the palm of the hand she used to touch the door. She looked at her hand. There, she saw an old, large silver key that had appeared at some point unknown to her.

"Can you see it? If so, you are indeed the Key."

Standing right beside Emilia, Pandora spoke in what seemed a whisper. Her words brought a sound out of Emilia's throat, but she realized the girl could not see the Key herself.

"You don't see this…?"

"—. No, I do not. This Key cannot be entrusted to anyone who does not possess the proper qualifications. There are likely only two people in the world who may hold this Key."

When Pandora murmured with a look of envy, Emilia saw something resembling emotion in her for the first time. But the impression the girl gave off that moment was meaningless. Lifting her face, Emilia turned back toward the door.

Surely, the key in her palm would match the keyhole of the lock in the center of the door.

It was something Emilia understood without having to try and see. Mysteriously, her hand felt accustomed to the key. It was as natural, as obvious as a key she might use to enter her own bedroom.

"Now, open it. Do this, and your wish shall be granted."

When Pandora's voice came to her from…somewhere, Emilia took a single step forward. If she put the key in the keyhole and willed it to "open," then open it would. That was all it would take for the seal to be released from its long, long, truly so very long duty.

If she did that, Geuse, Fortuna, and everyone else in the forest would surely be saved…and yet— Emilia—I promise.

As she was about to touch the seal, the words whispered by her mother upon their parting echoed in Emilia's head.

They were words exchanged in a promise unrelated to that seal. However, Emilia remembered. She remembered her mother had promised to protect her.

She knew nothing about the seal. She'd made a prior promise never to go to this place.

Emilia did not know about this place, and she was not supposed to know. She was not supposed to have anything to do with it at all.

She and Fortuna had made a promise. And she had to put keeping her promises above everything else. A promise was a creation of trust and she couldn't betray those feelings.

If she became a bad girl, no one would forgive Emilia anymore. She would become unforgivable.

That was why opening the seal would mean breaking a promise.

"I—I can't open it…"

"—Why?"

When Emilia reluctantly shook her head, Pandora spoke briefly, her voice hard for the first time.

Not noticing the change in her tone of voice, Emilia shook her head even more reluctantly.

"I…I made a promise. I don't know anything about the seal. I mustn't open it."

"Is that so? Promises are important, aren't they? I think your attempt to uphold yours is very righteous and commendable. However, such things have a time and place."

Gently, Pandora hugged Emilia from behind. Embraced by those slender, gorgeous arms, Emilia trembled from the warmth of someone who was not her mother.

"You made that promise with your mother, didn't you? Your mother is a most commendable person. She raised you to be proper and good. Such aspirations should be treasured."

"Th-then…"

"But sometimes, the time comes when you must decide to break a promise. Perhaps it is cruel to ask that of a child so young. However, fate does not take personal circumstance into account. What fate loves most is the struggle against the tides and embracing hope, come what may. What kind of hope do you seek?" "What kind…?"

As Emilia spoke in a broken voice, Pandora went, "Yes," smiling like a benevolent mother as she nodded.

"One choice would be the hope that you can keep the promise between you and your mother, not opening the seal and thus antagonizing us, but then overcome these tribulations in spite of that."

Pandora lifted up her right hand to indicate that invisible hope.

"And the other is the hope that by defying your mother's promise and opening the seal, we can both fulfill our objectives and harmoniously bring this entire affair to an end."

Lifting up her left hand, Pandora similarly presented to Emilia another invisible hope.

" "

Presented with these two options, Emilia stiffened, unable to raise her voice.

Her throat seemed so frozen that she couldn't even tell how to breathe. If she said something rash, would Pandora snatch back both hands that very instant?

Would Emilia lose both options without coming close to touching either one?

"What kind of hope shall you choose? —Your fate depends upon it." —The hope on the right. The hope on the left.

—Choosing the hope that upheld her promise. Choosing the hope that broke her promise.

The sweet, enchanting voice was dissolving her brain. The gentle tone of voice with which Pandora argued her case seduced Emilia's spirit.

That moment, she could not hear her own heartbeats, which had been so noisy before.

All sound had vanished from the world. Even color had been erased, leaving Emilia lost and alone.

Unable to hear even her own beating heart, what remained was her brain —no, her consciousness alone.

She couldn't choose. She couldn't choose. She couldn't choose couldn't choose couldn't couldn'tcouldn'tcouldn'tcouldn't.

Which was the right choice? What should she do to rescue everyone?

What did she need to do to help? She wanted someone, anyone to tell her.

Hope, salvation, her mother's teachings—

"—Ah."

"—So you've made your choice. This is your decision, isn't it?"

Amid her white-hot thoughts and her hollow, nebula-like vision, she heard Pandora's voice. Looking down at the hand the child's palm had reached, Pandora cast her eyes, rimmed by long eyelashes, downward.

—Emilia had touched Pandora's right hand.

She had chosen the hope that did not break her promise, that did not open the seal, that saved no one.

"I…made a promise with Mom. I have to keep my promises… I have to, so… Mooom…"

"You believed the words of the mother who raised you until the very end. At the end of your struggle, this is the answer you arrived at, the conclusion reached by your soul. I respect that."

As a steady flood of tears flowed from Emilia, Pandora nodded in what seemed like acceptance.

Then she gently brushed away Emilia's hand, which touched her own right hand, gazing at the young girl with apparent affection.

If Pandora wanted to, she could force Emilia, the key holder, to open the door. That she showed no intent of doing so must have meant there was some kind of tangible goodness inside Pandora.

If so, then—

"—However, please respect the decision I made to teach you the means to open this door."

It was an expression of her false benevolence. She had no qualms about completely ravaging anything that she didn't find valuable or worthy of respect.

"—Eh?"

In a daze, Emilia let her voice trickle out toward the smiling Pandora.

She saw that Pandora was looking not at her but at the woods behind her.

From the grove of white trees, a single figure leaped, charging toward them

—

"—Pandoraaa!!"

Howling with every fiber of her bloodied body was a woman with short silver hair—Fortuna. Just how ferocious had her battles been after returning to the forest? Fortuna appeared there, wounded all over, yet the glint of fierceness in her eyes was undiminished as she unleashed tremendous magical power to impale Pandora.

It sounded like the air cracked as long, massive spears of ice materialized in the area around Fortuna. Their aim was true, and with speed greater than an arrow, they streaked toward Pandora all at once.

"Take this—!!"

"Launching an attack without looking around first is quite dangerous."

Speaking calmly, Pandora stepped forward as if to shield Emilia. A moment later, a spear of ice pierced her chest, the next ones going through her hips, her arms, and her legs, shooting through one after another, with the final missile sending her head flying.

"—Aaaah!"

Watching that cruel death unfold right before her eyes, Emilia let out a high-pitched shriek. Having lost its head, Pandora's corpse fell backward, knocking Emilia down with it.

The surreal experience of being pinned under a headless corpse made Emilia scream long and hard.

"…Emilia?"

With that scream bringing her back to her senses, Fortuna was dumbfounded as she called out the name of her beloved daughter.

Her violet eyes showed less a feeling of accomplishment from having felled her mortal foe and more surprise at finding Emilia somewhere she ought not be. Fortuna raced to Emilia's side.

"Why are you here, Emilia…? You should have left the forest…"

"Is it not cruel to ask why? This girl was thinking of you, her mother, as she sped here with no thought other than wanting to save you. If a mother cannot respect and praise the purity of such thoughts, what will the world come to?"

"—!"

As Fortuna wavered, Pandora, right beside her, arched her brows in visible reproach.

Both sets of violet eyes opened wide—Fortuna reacting to Pandora's elusiveness and Emilia because the corpse, supposedly having just died a terrible death, vanished before her very eyes.

"And when you make the same faces, you really do look alike. That's a mother and daughter for you."

"—! I'm not Emilia's mother! It's my sister-in-law whom Emilia resembles!"

"Ahhh, her. How so very rude of me."

Fortuna unleashed an angry cry, and right as Pandora was in the middle of apologizing for it, a sword of ice mercilessly slashed her apart. Her torso was cut in half by a diagonal slice, and fresh blood spilled out as Pandora collapsed backward onto the ground.

"Then I suppose that makes you the mother who raised her. If so, you should be proud of yourself. Your daughter possesses a heart most worthy of praise. I am sure that her real parents would be overjoyed."

"Don't speak of my brother and sister-in-law with your filthy mouth!!"

The fallen corpse vanished, and Pandora stood at Fortuna's side as if it was the most natural thing. Fortuna lopped her neck off with her sword of ice, skewering her torso and shattering it into fragments. The next moment, when Pandora revived behind her, Fortuna closed the distance and impaled her, and when the beautiful visage appeared again farther away, she hurled the sword toward her. The second the tip of the sword caught her slender body, Pandora became a statue of ice, cracking and falling apart an instant later.

"Are you not tired of always rejecting conversation with violence like this? I've been waiting for a moment of calm to have a proper conversation, so how about we start over?"

"—!! I told you not to run your mouth!"

Glancing at the shattered ice statue, Pandora patted Fortuna on the shoulder. As a shudder went through her from the nightmarish sight, Fortuna slammed an open palm into the side of Pandora's face— "—Agh!"

"Emilia?!"

Emilia, knocked flying by her mother, skidded across the ground's surface, unable to break her fall. Fortuna, going pale at having inadvertently struck her own daughter, hurriedly raced over to her side.

"No!! Emilia, I'm so sorry! Oh no! I didn't mean to…!"

"It hurts that much to be struck. I'm sure your own heart feels pain at least equal to that. Now do you understand just how callous your behavior is?"

When Fortuna picked up Pandora, she yelped loudly and thrust the girl away. When she stood up and looked, she saw Emilia standing right by the seal, same as before. There was no sign that her cheek had been slapped.

"Are you relieved to know nothing happened to her? Could you not share just a little of that sentiment with an opponent you detest? I am not telling you to love everyone as if they were your own daughter. I am merely asking that you be slightly more considerate. You should keep at least a tiny bit of this in mind."

"What stupidity are you…? Who?! Who would listen to a single thing you say…?!"

"—Then how about this? Convince your daughter with your very own mouth. I have confirmed that the girl possesses the Key, but she refuses to open the door even so to uphold a promise made with none other than you."

The negotiation she'd conducted with Emilia made Fortuna's breath catch. Emilia, trembling under her gaze, hardened her own cheeks, desperately turning her tear-clouded eyes toward her mother.

"If you rescind that promise, there will be no chains left to bind her obstinate heart. All I require is for the seal to be lifted. Once it's done, I promise to distance myself from this forest without doing anything else.

Promise… Such a wonderful word, yes?"

She had no apparent intent to ridicule; no doubt these were her true thoughts. There was no malice in Pandora's affection- and envy-filled words. It was that very lack of malice that made them so powerfully, wickedly sarcastic.

Within Fortuna's vision, Emilia clenched both her hands, awaiting her mother's words. Her hands were bulging from grasping something—because she held the Key that could unlock the seal.

If Fortuna spoke a single word, Emilia would open the sealed door. If that action would save the forest, her young heart was determined to offer everything for it—

"—I'm sorry, Emilia. I'm sorry I made you go through all this."

Fortuna walked toward the door—nay, to her daughter, embracing Emilia tightly as she spoke. From this hug, she could tell that the young girl was shaking.

Parent and child rubbed their silver hair against each other's cheek, sharing warmth as if to confirm the other's presence.

"Emilia, I'm truly and very… You came here alone? What about Archi?"

"Archi…told me to run as far as the white flowers… That's why…I ran…"

"—!"

Hearing from Emilia what Archi had told her, Fortuna realized that the young elf's life had reached its end.

The unfortunate end of the young man who had told them that they were family filled Fortuna's chest with sadness. However, Fortuna did not show a tearful face to the daughter she embraced.

Just how many lives had the minion of that vicious Witch stolen around the forest…?

Even so, Fortuna was proud of the decision her daughter had made.

"Emilia, Emilia…you did well to keep your promise. Good girl. Good girl."

"Mom…! Mom, I—I—!"

"Emilia…you are my pride. You are my treasure…"

As her daughter nestled close, Fortuna gently embraced her.

Pandora's face grew hot, seemingly entranced by the sight. Her expression was as if she wanted to monopolize the world's most beautiful scenes all for herself.

"I have had my fill of beautiful love between parent and child. To love and be loved is marvelous indeed…"

"I don't feel very warm and fuzzy hearing that from you— I won't break the seal. I won't hand over this girl. My reply is the same as Emilia's. Turn into an ice statue and wither here, would you?"

"Do you not think such a cruel statement is bad for your daughter's education?"

"Nothing can be worse for her education than having a conversation with someone like you."

Rejecting Pandora's very existence, Fortuna channeled the mana around her once more. Sensing that renewed hostility and increasing magical power, Pandora pursed her lips with a forlorn expression.

—The next moment.

"After sooo long, I have finally caught up with you—!"

His voice was tinged with madness, yet the man held on to an even greater sense of duty as he rushed onto the battlefield.

Leaping over the tall, pure-white trees was a man wearing a habit— Geuse—passing through the sky high, fast, and with enough force that one might think a giant had hurled him.

"Geuse!"

"Lady Fortunaaa!"

Fortuna and Geuse called out each other's names, and that was all it took to link their wills together. With Pandora standing by the sealed door, Fortuna and Geuse were in the perfect position to conduct a pincer, unleashing maximum firepower from front and rear.

Fortuna gripped Emilia's trembling right hand with her left.

Emilia stared up at the side of her mother's face.

—As she gazed straight ahead, ready to boldly confront her opponent, she was beautiful enough to make one tremble.

"Al Hyuma—!!"

"Unseen Haaands—!!!"

The unparalleled destruction woven by Fortuna combined with the maximum amount of heresy Geuse could derive from the power of the Witch Factor. As such incredibly devastating power swelled, the sky of the Great Elior Forest cried out in agony—

"—Mom?"

An invisible hand pierced Fortuna's chest, bathing Emilia's entire body in her mother's fresh blood.

2

Emilia felt the hand holding her own grow limp as Fortuna's body collapsed before her eyes.

"With thiiiiis—it is over!!"

Howling, Geuse landed as he waved around his blood-soaked hand. Seemingly pulled by his gesture, Fortuna's body traced a similar arc as it danced in the air. Strength drained from Fortuna's limbs as she was cast away like a doll and tumbled across the ground— Blood poured ceaselessly out of her body.

"I felt that striiike her… After sooo many tries, thiiis time…" His breathing ragged, Geuse murmured as he knelt on the spot.

Emilia did not hear his voice, nor did she see the state he was in. Emilia saw Fortuna alone.

" "

With a wobbly gait, she headed toward where Fortuna had fallen.

Holes had opened in Fortuna's body from both sides, chest and back, and a great deal of blood flowed from her broken flesh. Even the spurts of blood began to grow weaker by the time Emilia knelt down in the pool of blood.

Embracing her pale mother's head, she somehow brought it onto her own lap. Fortuna's pretty silver hair was speckled and drenched with blood as Emilia desperately tried to keep it unblemished, cleaning it with her fingers. However, as she did so, Emilia's own fingers were marred with blood; the more she touched, the less pretty Fortuna's hair became.

"Lady Fortuna! Do not drop your guard! Be careful. I will check…" "Geuse…?"

" "

Incredibly wary, Geuse turned a palm toward Fortuna. Emilia sluggishly raised her head; Geuse's tense expression changed when he heard her voice.

For an instant, he blinked, his face like that of one looking far in the distance.

"Lady Emilia?"

Geuse murmured, looking like he was noticing the sight of the little girl kneeling in a pool of blood for the very first time.

Then he slowly shifted his gaze to the individual whose head rested upon Emilia's knees.

His eyes opened wide.

"…This…cannot be."

Shocked by the scene before his eyes, Geuse could only mutter that single phrase.

He looked to his side. Calmly standing beside Geuse was a woman with a beautiful visage, not a single blemish upon her. That beautiful figure, of the Witch named Pandora, flashed Geuse a smile.

"It cannot be helped. You were merely 'mistaken' in what you saw."

"Ah, aah… Aaaaaaaaaagh—?!"

Understanding everything from that smile, Geuse plunged his fingernails into his own cheek as he screamed. The power of it stripped his nails, gouged his flesh, and stained the man's face crimson.

"Absurd, absurd, absurdabsurdabsurdabsurd! What have I—? What iiis it I have done?! What have I…? Why, whywhywhywhywhywhy?! This… Then what have—? For what purpose have I been…aaa? Aah?! AAAAAAAH!!"

Geuse had taken the Witch Factor into himself, using sheer willpower to keep an incompatible Deadly Sin in check.

The most important part of him that kept this indomitable willpower going had snapped. Geuse could almost hear the sound of it breaking as everything that had been holding him together fell to pieces inside him.

With the power he had gambled his life to obtain, he had himself destroyed the life he had made the gamble to protect.

"I… For what purpose have I…?!"

"—All was for love."

Having lost his mind to madness, a lament echoed through Geuse's despairing soul.

With a quiet voice, Pandora replied to Geuse's mournful question.

"You offered your own soul to save the one you love. That is something few people are capable of. For so very, very long, you supported the Witch Cult day after day for the sake of love. All your actions are the product of love. The path of love is marvelous indeed."

"Love… Love, love…love, love… Love…!!"

"Yes. There is nothing you need be afraid of, nothing you need regret. All was inevitable; the path of fate led you here. Having come this far, you must continue down this path— 'Your love is not mistaken.'"

"For love…!"

Repeatedly jamming such sweet nothings into his ears, Geuse felt his mind well and truly shatter.

Dropping to his knees, light fading from his eyes, he fell into oblivion, unable to move.

Gazing at the sight of Geuse so stricken, Pandora smiled, quite satisfied with herself.

"Emi…lia…"

And at the same time Geuse's mind had been smashed, the fires of another life were going out.

"Mom…"

Hearing her name spoken by such a faint, fading voice, Emilia called out again in a daze.

Embracing her mother with trembling arms, she found it heartbreaking how much lighter Fortuna's body had grown. At some point, her blood must have flowed in such great quantities that it stopped coming out at all.

If the bleeding had stopped, was her mother's wound all right, she wondered?

Emilia's mind was so young; there was no way to protect it without holding on to some kind of hope. Anyone could see that Fortuna, no longer retaining any power to move, was on death's door.

"…Bro…ther…I'm…sorry."

"Mom."

"I couldn't…protect anything…you told…me to…"

She voiced her regrets, her tone like that of an apologizing child.

With nothing left to bleed, the only thing that came out were Fortuna's tears.

Feeling the heat of those tears with a touch of her finger, Emilia tried with all her might to gather them up.

She did this thinking them the sum total of her mother's life force at that moment.

"My sister…will be a-angry, huh…? She won't forgive me…for this… will she…?"

As she listened to her mother's words, Emilia belatedly realized.

The light had long faded from her mother's violet eyes. Those eyes could only shed tears; they could not see Emilia's face. She didn't realize Emilia was at her side.

No matter how much she touched her, no matter how much she held her, nothing was getting through.

To her mother, Fortuna, who was crying and begging for forgiveness like a little child, Emilia—

"—Mom, I forgive you."

" "

"Mom has…Mom has always taken care of me… You loved me, every bit as much as Father and Mother…"

" "

"So there's nothing to be sorry for. There isn't. Emilia has always, always…always loved you so much, Mom. I love you so much. I love you, I love you… I love you…!"

Her emotions were falling apart.

Her voice lost all composure, and the teardrops she could no longer hold back fell onto Fortuna's face one after another. If teardrops truly carried the power of life, there was no doubt Emilia's tears brought about a miracle.

"…Mom?"

"Lia."

A slowly rising hand touched Emilia's cheek.

A hand that shouldn't have been able to move felt Emilia's cheek, stroked her ear, tickled her hair. She gently caressed Emilia like she was touching something unimaginably valuable, something impossibly fragile. But above all, she touched lovingly. Lovingly. Lovingly.

"Such a crybaby."

" "

"I really love yo…"

Her strength drained away.

Her arm made a soft sound as it fell.

In her lap, Emilia felt the body of Fortuna, who had reached up to stroke her face, grow lighter still.

Even though her whole body losing energy should have made her heavier, Fortuna became tangibly lighter in Emilia's arms—something that must never come out had left.

Fortuna was no longer there… Even Emilia understood that.

" "

Her mother, Fortuna, was gone.

Geuse's—Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti's mind was broken.

And Emilia was—

"Now then, are you prepared to choose the hope of lifting the seal?"

Pandora walked over, addressing Emilia as she embraced Fortuna's remains.

With a gentle face, Pandora quietly awaited her reply. Emilia lifted her head.

"…Open the seal?"

"Yes. Unfortunately, the mother with whom you made that promise has passed away. No longer do the fetters called a promise bind you. So how about it?"

When Pandora presented that heinous argument like it was perfectly normal, Emilia understood everything.

She understood for what purpose this demon, standing before her in the form of a person, had done such things. This demon had acted for no reason other than to make Emilia break her promise.

For nothing more than that sake, she had caused Fortuna to die and Geuse's mind to break and had thoroughly trampled the forest underfoot.

"Oh yes, I forgot something— Come on out."

As Emilia adopted an emotionless expression, Pandora made an inviting motion with her hand toward the air in front of Emilia. When she did so, faint, phosphorescent glows floated up all around Emilia, and these countless lights slowly moved toward Pandora, gathering as she beckoned. The lights added a surreal beauty to her already enchanting visage.

They were fairies—or rather, lesser spirits.

They were the fairies that had led Emilia to the sealed door, showing her the way.

Why had they gone over to Pandora…?

"I was not convinced you would come here if left to your own devices, so I asked them to help, you see. They are such dependable children."

When Pandora smiled, conveying her thanks to the lesser spirits, her words made the lights happily sway about.

—When had it all started? Emilia no longer knew.

Wobbly, Emilia's own head swayed as she looked up at the sealed door.

The door leisurely looked back down at Emilia, as if waiting expectantly for the moment it would be opened. She belatedly noticed the heavy sensation of the Key firmly in the palm of her hand. At some point, the Key had reappeared within it.

"The Key… I'm so glad; it seems you still had it. You understand what to do, then?"

With Pandora smiling in front of her, Emilia quietly trembled.

She gently slid her mother's head from her lap, lightly resting it atop the grass. With a finger, she toyed with her mother's hair before carefully arranging Fortuna's beautiful face. Her hair was short, colored silver like Emilia's own. She gently removed the floral accessory from her mother's beautiful hair, replacing it with Emilia's own.

Finally, she put her mother's floral accessory into her own hair. With that,

she and her mother would be together…always.

And then— "Die."

—surging cold welled up to form seemingly innumerable blades, turning Pandora's flesh into bloody mist in a single instant.

The gushing blood instantly froze. Vivid flowers of red ice bloomed in a chaotic pattern.

A single pillar of ice stood at the epicenter, petals of fresh blood scattered all about. It was a sculpture of ice and death.

"What a violent thing to have done to me. What has gotten into you all of a

—?"

"Die."

Stakes of ice poured down, drilling into Pandora's limbs, and a spear of ice thrust out of the ground's surface, impaling her from her waist to the crown of her skull. Her frozen body, bathed in impacts from above and below, made a high-pitched sound as it shattered into tiny pieces.

"Please calm yourself. Surely, we can understand each other if we only speak."

"Die."

Mighty blocks of ice closed in from left and right, crushing Pandora's body and cruelly transforming it into a pathetic lump of flesh.

"You are a gentle girl deep in your heart. Doing this will only make your mother sad."

"Die."

A spinning blade of ice rose from below Pandora's feet and sliced her to ribbons, sending crimson lumps of ice flying.

"You are betraying the numerous wishes placed in you…by your parents, Archbishop Romanée-Conti, and your mother, as well."

"Die—!!"

A white cloud enveloped Pandora, transforming her body into an ice statue. A mighty sword of ice swung downward a moment later, not slicing but rather, smashing the statue, scattering it in chunks across the ground with tremendous force.

Pandora was slain again and again in a tempest of bloodlust and countless, inexhaustible, violently creative means of destruction. And yet— "How troublesome. It seems this has caused the opposite of the intended effect."

"Die, die, die, die…!!"

As she sobbed and wailed, Emilia poured icy destruction upon Pandora over and over.

However, even as Pandora assuredly died each and every time, she instantly revived just as quickly.

"D-die… Die…"

Each time Emilia strained her young body to cast magic, she drew closer to her limit. She cast spells one after another even though her body couldn't support it, her face turning red as her lower half began to freeze over. She wasn't expelling it fast enough and the increasingly vast store of mana she had drawn into her body was beginning to go out of control.

"Such an incredible amount of mana…and a Gate that can manage all this… It would seem a Witch's progeny cannot flee from fate— Perhaps you were brought to this forest to make sure your blood continued to slumber."

Emilia did not understand the meaning of Pandora's comment, but she shook her head to reject it all the same. Her right leg had completely frozen over; it was difficult for her to even stand straight. She went down to one knee. Her murderous violet eyes shot right through Pandora; the sight of bloodlust in one so young made Pandora lower her own gaze.

"This is most unfortunate considering my greatest desire is right before me, but I shall leave it at this for today. Any more, and it seems I will only make you push yourself further."

"Die, die, die, die…!"

"We have accomplished much today: learning of your bloodline, confirming the existence of the Key, and the birth of a new Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins— More importantly, taking the seal and leaving is more than sufficient… Oh my."

Her arbitrary conclusion that left no room for discussion was the very epitome of conceit.

But as Pandora put her spin on the situation, white crystals suddenly entered her field of vision.

—Snow.

Emilia's absurd level of mana had gone berserk, warping the climate itself to the extreme and causing snow to fall.

At first, it was a flake here, a flake there; however, the force and strength

of the snowfall soon increased, growing powerful enough to be properly called a snowstorm.

"—From the looks of things, you are about to enter a rather long slumber."

Looking up at the falling snow, Pandora then turned to Emilia, the cause of the dramatic shift in weather.

Already, the frost had reached Emilia's hips; she was no longer able to move either arm.

"Your power will cover this forest in ice that shall never melt. At some point, your mana shall reach its very limit, or perhaps it shall be offset by

someone whose power rivals your own. Until then…"

"Die, die…!"

"Unfortunately, I shall not. When the snow melts and this icy winter comes to an end, we shall inevitably meet again. But I would feel very lonely if you were to hate me when that time comes."

As Emilia spat curses, Pandora gently touched the young girl's forehead with a fingertip.

Emilia's violet eyes seethed with hatred as Pandora smiled at her with an innocent face.

"You will 'completely forget about my existence in your memories up to this day.'"

"—Ah."

"Go ahead and fill the gap however you like. Ah, yes. You kept your promise with all your heart and soul. Carve this deeply into your heart. I would be pleased if you remain just as you are now."

Frozen up to her chest, Emilia's head reeled, her unfocused gaze lingering on the world around her. Her eyes were spinning, drool spilled from the corner of her lips, and the inside of Emilia's head had been all stirred up.

Randomly, unwittingly, the pages strewn over the wall of her memory rearranged themselves as they pleased, creating innumerable inconsistencies.

The words that had been exchanged vanished into the distance, and she forgot the love she had been given, leaving only fear and a sense of guilt behind—

—The important thing that did not vanish…was her promise.

She absolutely did not forget she had upheld her promise. Nor had she forgotten she had to uphold her promise.

—She'd kept her promise. The promise had been kept.

"I wonder just what colors shall greet your heart and what kind of smile you will show me the next time we meet? I look forward to the day when we shall see each other again."

Even amid the ferocious snowstorm, Pandora's voice carried clearly as she walked forward, stroking her own platinum hair.

Geuse, still in a daze as he knelt, was buried up to half his body. When Pandora whispered something into his ear, he stood up with an emotionless face.

The pair, Pandora and Geuse, departed the snowy forest, walking side by side.

All Emilia could do was watch them go.

Her body had continued to freeze, the ice already reaching a part of her face. Only in her eyes did Emilia's consciousness remain.

Abruptly, Emilia realized she was gazing downward.

There was an unnatural clump of snow on the ground right in front of her.

It was as if someone was being embraced by this pure, snowy-white landscape.

" "

She could not move her mouth. She could no longer close her eyes.

Her body, her heart was freezing over. And so, too, was Emilia's consciousness— "—om."

The girl would proceed to sleep in never-melting ice for a span of a hundred years, until a spirit who sought her, who had received life for her sake alone, found her.

—Emilia continued to sleep within the ice, ever, ever alone.

3

—Emilia stood still in front of her frozen young self. She'd watched everything to the end.

" "

Under the commanding view she'd had of her entire raging past, her memories had at some point melted away.

Scenes she could not possibly have seen, events she could not possibly know, the last moments of her homeland she could never have witnessed, all of it—Emilia remembered more than the memories she had lost.

—She remembered everything that had happened.

Through this journey, which had filled the gaps in her memory, she had walked the path that led to her regrets. Just how sinful was the tranquility she gained by forgetting her regrets?

She had seen for herself all of young Emilia's days, all she had forgotten in order to go on living up to this day.

Fortuna's death, Geuse's madness, the reason her homeland had been encased in ice, everything—

"If you wish to blame yourself for the falsification of your memories, I believe you would be in error."

Abruptly, as Emilia drifted in the chasm between memory and consciousness, a voice addressed her.

It was the Witch standing beside her—Echidna. She turned her cold eyes toward Emilia as the girl hugged her own knees. Just like Emilia, Echidna had witnessed these regrets from beginning to end. She gazed at Emilia's younger, frozen self.

"You and your family faced off against the Witch of Vanity. Brandishing her flimsy, self-serving logic, she employed her power to 'rewrite' phenomena as she pleased. There is no question that it was the Authority of

Vanity that caused your warped memories."

"The Witch of Vanity…"

"An exceedingly filthy Authority. Your younger self outstripped Pandora in simple terms of power, but that was due to her being particularly illmatched against your strengths and nothing more."

Apparently, Echidna looked down even upon Pandora. Perhaps Emilia ought to have said, As expected of a Witch.

Echidna's barbed demeanor since coming into contact with Emilia was unchanged, but never before had Echidna replied so readily to one of Emilia's questions.

"Can I ask you about Pandora?"

"…I tend to be fond of conversing with others, but where you are concerned, I decline. I don't like the cheeky thought process behind such questions: It might be too much to ask, but I'll ask anyway and their ilk."

"Is that how it is…? Well, thank you anyway."

Hearing Emilia give thanks despite being insulted, Echidna twisted her lips in disgust.

Emilia actually found Echidna's unchanging attitude incredibly comforting at the moment. That was how staggering Emilia's past had been. In a true sense, the restoration of her memories had turned her entire life upside down.

—She'd committed body and spirit to the royal selection to save everyone in the frozen forest, and yet…

"I'm the one who made them all ice statues… Everyone who tried to save me…"

Unable to respond to their feelings, she'd ended up shutting everyone under the snow, freezing them completely.

Once freed from the ice, Emilia had spent her time in the forest without any memories of her regrets. She'd spent every day continuing to speak to the people who had become ice statues—never realizing she was trying to atone for her own feelings of guilt.

Now she understood why her memories had been sealed away. Even had Pandora not interfered with them, she might have wanted to forget them regardless in a moment of weakness.

"You have remembered the past and seen your regrets to the end. However, the Trial is not yet finished."

The memories that led to her regrets had finished playing out. Echidna made a comment as she stared at the silent world's snowy landscape.

"The past has been revealed without difficulty. You challenged the Trial, and your journey to reach your worst, most terrible mistakes, which gave rise to your regrets, is at an end. Now you must provide your answer."