Bonus Short Stories
You Did Good, Kid
Six years had passed since the Liberators had begun making their labyrinths. The group was now working on the final one, Miledi’s, which would be located in the Reisen Gorge. Right now, though, Miledi and Oscar had headed out into the world to put a certain plan into motion.
“Man, what a riot! They’re calling this the cursed land that gave birth to the cute witch Miledi!” Miledi said, cackling as she skipped ahead of Oscar. The Reisen Gorge had been declared a cursed land over the past few years, so almost no one came to it anymore.
“They’re calling you the heretical witch, not the cute witch.”
“I know, but cute sounds better.”
“You realize you’re not a teenager anymore, right?”
“You wanna fight, O-chan?” Miledi asked as she twirled around to face Oscar. She looked quite different from six years ago. For one thing, she’d swapped out her miniskirt for a longer one. She’d also let her hair down instead of keeping it in pigtails. She’d gotten a good fifteen centimeters taller, and her baby face looked much more mature. But while her appearance had changed significantly, her personality had remained the exact same.
“Uhhh, well, all right. If you wanna call yourself cute, you can.”
“Hey, Oscar, why aren’t you looking me in the eyes?”
Incidentally, the one part of Miledi that hadn’t grown was her boobs.
“Anyway, we’re here, Miledi. Your old manor was around there, right?”
Miledi glared at Oscar, but then with a click of her tongue, she turned back around to look at her old home. Nothing was left of it. With Reisen having become a cursed name, there was no one living in this region anymore. That was convenient for Oscar and Miledi, but still, it felt a bit sad to be looking at an empty lot. Relying on her memories, Miledi walked over to where the mansion had once stood.
“Miledi?”
“Give me a second to mentally prepare myself,” Miledi said, then took a deep breath.
The two of them had come here to take a picture. At Oscar’s suggestion, they’d started a picture album and taken a bunch of group and solo pictures over the past six years. And this picture would be one of the most important additions to that album. In a way, this would be a reunion for Miledi.
“I’m ready, O-chan.”
“Got it.”
Oscar put a small, palm-sized jewel in the center of the manor’s ruins. A second later, a golden glow enveloped the area. Oscar took out the jewel’s pair and held it in his hand. It was an artifact that allowed the user to recreate a vision of the past and project it anywhere. Expending a huge amount of mana, Oscar used his artifact to bring back a vision from eleven years ago. People moved backward in hyper speed while buildings were built and taken down in seconds as Oscar swam back through time. And eventually—
“Ah...”
The girl Miledi had been waiting for appeared. Belta Lievre. Her annoying smile was exactly as Miledi remembered it. Miledi unconsciously used gravity magic to float up into the air. Oscar followed after her, coming to a stop a short distance behind her. He watched quietly as the image of Belta stuck something into Miledi’s bed. Her expression was bright, and she was clearly excited for Miledi to find whatever she’d stashed.
“So that’s the kind of face you made when you were setting up your pranks, huh?” Miledi mumbled. Her voice was trembling. She was smiling, but tears of longing were spilling down her cheeks. After some time passed, young Miledi walked into the room. Belta excused herself rather quickly, which was unusual, considering she normally messed around with Miledi up until bedtime, and Miledi’s shoulders drooped a little as Belta left.
“I can’t believe Belle doesn’t want to talk today...” young Miledi and present Miledi both said at the same time. Young Miledi then changed into her pajamas and pulled back the covers of her bed, only to find a giant porn poster underneath. For five minutes, young Miledi just stared at it in abject shock. Finally, she regained her senses and prepared to burn it, but as she looked at it, she became captivated and couldn’t stop staring. Meanwhile, Belta watched through a crack in the doorway. And eventually, Miledi noticed she was being watched and shouted at Belta. After being chased around for a bit, Belta jumped onto Miledi’s bed, and Miledi dived after her. The two of them slapped each other for a few seconds, then rolled onto the ground in a tangled heap.
“It looks like you were having a lot of fun,” Oscar said quietly.
“I was...”
Oscar played the vision forward again, and the two of them watched as slowly but surely Miledi learned to let her emotions show thanks to Belta. Despite being constantly teased, Miledi looked like she was genuinely enjoying her time. Every now and then, Belta taught her some important life lessons, but their interactions always ended with them messing around. They spent less than a year together in total, but by the end, they were as close as siblings. Oscar made sure to record all of these tender moments in his portable Skynet.
“Just once, I asked old man Sal,” Miledi suddenly said, “...I asked him why Belle had come to the manor. She was the leader of the Liberators back then, and she wasn’t even all that strong, so why had she personally infiltrated the Reisen family’s manor?”
“You...make a good point.”
Now that Miledi had pointed out that fact, Oscar realized how strange that was.
“Apparently, Sal and the others had all been against Belle’s decision.”
“I take it she was too stubborn to change her mind?”
“Yep. Apparently, she’d told Sal that even though she’d lost her special magic that let her read the lines of fate when she’d died the first time, she could feel that she’d find the hope they were looking for at the Reisen Gorge.”
Miledi looked down at Belta, who was currently stroking the hair of a sleeping young Miledi. Then, speaking more to herself than to Oscar, she muttered, “Thinking back on it now, she must have sacrificed her life to transform me from the executioner family’s puppet into a Liberator.”
“Are you wondering whether you’ve done enough to make her sacrifice worth it?”
Still looking down at Belta, Miledi nodded slightly. Oscar gave her an exasperated look, walked over to her, and declared, “You’re an idiot, you know that?!”
“Wh-What?!” Miledi roared, turning around indignantly. But then, her eyes widened in surprise when she saw the camera in Oscar’s hands.
“Come on, get down there. Hurry up. I’m running out of mana here.”
“W-Wait, you’re gonna take the picture now?! Hold on! I wanna pick the right scene to—”
“Shut up. You’ve got a terrible sense for photos anyway. Scoot a little to the right. Put your hands on your hips and lean a bit to the left! Yeah, just like that! Now give me that annoying smile you always make!”
Overwhelmed, Miledi obediently did as Oscar asked. He nodded in satisfaction, and as soon as the picture was taken, she scowled and ran over to him. Instead of saying anything, he just showed her the picture he’d taken.
“Ah...” Miledi gasped. In the picture, her smile was identical to Belta’s and the two of them were making the exact same pose.
“Yep, you’re definitely prettier— Ahem, I mean your smile’s more annoying. You’ve completely surpassed your master.”
“Is that supposed to be a compliment?”
“It’s the job of a disciple to surpass their master. That’s the best way to show you love them. It’s what my dad told me, so it’s gotta be true.” Oscar looked Miledi straight in the eyes. “Besides, you’ve done so much for us—and for the world—and you’re going to keep on striving for the ideal future until the end of time. There isn’t a single person alive who would dare say Belta’s sacrifice wasn’t worth it.”
Oscar didn’t want to speak for the dead, so he made sure not to say that Belta would have told Miledi it was worth it. But as someone who’d walked down the same path as Miledi, he wanted to let her know how he felt.
“I see...” Miledi turned her back to Oscar. “All right, let’s go back! I can’t wait to see that picture get developed!” she said cheerfully. She then smiled one last time at Belta and turned on her heel.
Oscar erased the vision of the past and quietly followed her. He could tell she was blushing, but he had enough tact not to point that out.
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