CHAPTER 7
What She Taught Me: Twilight Words
A bright red sunset lit up the western sky. Dusk came early in Orario, due to the high walls that bordered the city, and there was a long period of time after its shadows began to creep along the streets before the last vestiges of sunlight died out completely.
In happier times, adults would while away these hours drinking in taverns, while children would play on street corners. Nowadays, however, the specter of the Evils hung over the city, and the long twilight was spent only shivering behind bolted doors and shuttered windows.
Lyu walked these quiet streets without a word on her lips.
“.….…. ”
Even the mask could not fully conceal the fourteen-year-old elf’s natural beauty. The setting sun cast a ray across her face but failed to extinguish the shadow of doubt that lurked there. As she watched the sparse crowds, she thought to herself.
What exactly was her justice?
Eren’s words rang in her mind. Beneath the mask, she ground her teeth.
“It’s obvious…” she said, as though he were still there to hear her. “Our justice…the cause we all carry in our hearts…It’s…”
Her words reached no ears but her own. And still she failed to spit out a single answer. With just one question, the god had proved to her just how foolish she really was. A follower of Astrea, the goddess of justice, unable to even define the term. It was shameful. Idiotic.
“Leon! There you are.”
That voice was so bright it seemed to light up the darkening avenue. Lyu felt somebody bump her from behind, and a pair of arms wrapped around her.
“A-Ardee?!”
“Yep! Who once told Lord Ganesha that even though I always cling to people like a dog, I actually love cats, and he said, well, elephants are ele-fun? It’s me, Ardee!”
“Why do you always introduce yourself like that?” cried Lyu, still not over the shock of bumping her. “Don’t crash into me, it’s dangerous!”
“I’m sorry, Leon,” said Ardee apologetically. “I just saw you all alone, and I had to.”
Ardee scratched her cheek, still pressing her ample breasts into Lyu’s back. She shared that shapeliness with her sister, it seemed. Lyu’s face grew redder and redder, until Ardee at last had enough and released her.
“So, are you by yourself?” she asked.
“Yes,” Lyu replied. “I’m on patrol. We decided we should keep up appearances, so that the Evils don’t suspect anything.”
Ardee fell in line beside her, and the two started walking. Alize and Kaguya had passed on the details of the meeting two days prior, so Lyu knew about Finn’s plan. All the members of Astrea Familia were buzzing with energy thanks to this new course of action, but they were trying not to let it show.
“Oh, right,” said Ardee. “Yeah, I just got off work, too, myself! I’ve finally finished taking inventory of everything that we seized at the black market!” Then her eyes lit up. “Listen to this. You’ll never guess what we found! It’s the branches from—”
But just then, Ardee noticed the look on Lyu’s face. It was as if the girl was far away, not even listening to what Ardee had to say.
“…Is something up?” she asked.
“No, I’m just…thinking about things,” said Lyu, but her eyes remained fixed to the ground.
“You don’t have to lie to me, you know,” said Ardee. “Besides, you’re really bad at it!”
“A-Ardee…”
Lyu looked over at Ardee’s indefatigable smile. All the warmth of human kindness lay within it.
“Let’s worry about it together,” she said. “I mean, what else are friends for?”
Lyu and Ardee stopped to rest on a convenient planter by the side of the road, and the elf girl told her story.
“So Eren showed up after the soup kitchen massacre…” Ardee said when she had finished. “I’m sorry; I wish I’d been there for you.”
Lyu shook her head. “It’s okay,” she said. “You and Shakti were with Braver doing what needed to be done. You don’t need to apologize.”
Ardee thought for a moment, looking up at the darkening sky overhead.
“This Eren’s a lot meaner than he seemed at first, don’t you think?”
“I hope that’s all it is…” mused Lyu. “I know gods can be detached, but this seemed like more than that.”
“From what you said,” Ardee replied, “I think he sounds like a dumb boy trying to get a girl’s attention!”
“How did you reach that conclusion?” asked Lyu with a mixture of indignation and embarrassment. Then her voice took on a somber tone. “I don’t think that was it. I don’t think that was it at all…”
The events of that day replayed in her mind. It was as if the strange god were mocking her, even now.
“If you can’t answer that…
“…then whatever you call justice must be twisted beyond measure. Far more than any evil.”
His words reverberated in her very soul. Before she knew it, Lyu had turned to Ardee.
“What do you think justice is?” she asked her. “True justice, I mean?”
“Hmm…That’s a hard question,” Ardee replied. “I think everyone has their own answer to that. I wonder if gods do, too?”
There was little certainty to Ardee’s response. She stroked her slender chin and closed her eyes.
“I’m not as smart as my big sis,” she said, “If we overthink it, we’re just going to go round in circles.”
“.….…. ”
Ardee’s answer was insightful, and it might even have convinced Lyu, once. But she couldn’t exactly go back to Eren and say, “I try not to think about it.” She needed a concrete theory, one that would persuade both him and herself.
What made good better than evil? That was the question she needed to answer, and now it looked like she would have to find that answer on her own. It felt somewhat like Ardee had just left her all alone at the center of a great maze, and Lyu cast her eyes to the ground once more.
Then, as she pondered it, Ardee’s face lit up. “How about this?” she asked. “Justice is turning weapons into music.”
“…Wh-what? Weapons into music?”
“Yeah! Like hanging up swords and spears and making them into wind chimes! Or getting two shields and crashing them together as cymbals! Or, or beating on a cannon like a big drum!”
Lyu half suspected the girl had gone mad. She gestured wildly as she talked, and her eyes were as wide as a child’s.
“Making it so weapons don’t hurt people anymore but bring them smiles instead! That’s my justice, and it can be yours as well! Do what I do and just don’t think about it so hard!”
Ardee’s attempts to cheer her up prompted a long silence from Lyu. Then, at the end of it, she said:
“That’s not true, Ardee.”
She looked up into the carefree girl’s eyes.
“You’ve thought about this much longer and much harder than I have. I know because of what you said the other day.”
Lyu thought back to seven days ago, just before the pair encountered Eren for the first time. It was Lyu who wanted to pursue the law to its fullest extent, and it was Ardee who fought not to.
“That man was right. The only reason we can afford to be worried about justice is because we’re the ones with all the power.”
“I’ve been thinking, Leon. Do you think forgiveness can be a part of justice?”
No words from Eren’s lips ever shook Lyu so deeply as Ardee’s did.
“While I was mindlessly following the word of the law, you had gone beyond that,” Lyu said. “You thought about it until you found a justice you could believe in.”
The two girls sat side by side, dyed in the red glow of evening. Lyu’s words caused Ardee to give up her carefree demeanor.
“You’re right,” she said. “Justice isn’t easy, Leon.”
She smiled, a lonely smile.
“You can’t make others agree with it, but you can’t keep it to yourself, either, or else you’ll never change the world…You know, sometimes I think there’s no such thing as true justice.”
“Ardee…”
In that moment, the girl sounded much older than she appeared. Lyu gave her a supportive look.
“All I want is for everyone to get along, to be happy, and to not have to think so hard about anything,” said Ardee.
It was a child’s wish. Noble, and very simple, but almost impossible to grant.
What would Alize have to say? What about Astrea? And would Lyu agree with them? The gods of heaven came down to live among the people, but they brought no answers. They would only offer guidance, as if saying “This is your story.”
But how long would that story take? And would Lyu ever reach its end and find the answers she was searching for? She asked herself over and over, lost in her thoughts as the red sky darkened. In that schism between night and day, when everything seemed so fickle and ephemeral, Lyu felt as though she were standing alone in a vast desert, far away.
At that moment, Ardee spoke again.
“But you know,” she said, the smile returning to her lips. “At times like this, I find it’s best to be honest with yourself.”
“Huh?”
“About what it is you really want to do.”
Ardee stood up and turned around.
“And what I want to do is make you happy, Leon!” she said. “I guess that’s my justice now!”
“…!”
Lyu’s sky-blue eyes shot wide open. Ardee smiled and took her hand.
“Let’s dance, Leon! Right here, right now!”
“Wh-what? Ardee? Have you lost your—?!”
Ardee pulled Lyu to her feet. Their fingers entwined, the pair skipped across the cobblestone, with Ardee leading and Lyu trying desperately not to fall over. Before long, the sunny girl broke into a fit of giggles, and people stopped and stared at the curious sight.
“What’s going on?” said a dwarven laborer.
“An elf and a human, dancing?” said another, a weary human man.
“They just started all of a sudden, in the middle of the street!” said a third, a sparkly-eyed catgirl.
Before long, a great crowd gathered, to which Ardee paid no mind whatsoever. Lyu, on the other hand, was blushing so hard you could see it through her mask.
“A-Ardee! Stop it!” she shrieked. “Why are we doing this?”
“It’s what an old hero used to say!” the girl replied, smiling innocently. “I read it in the Tale of Argonaut! ‘So dance, fair maiden! Dance to your heart’s delight! Show me the smile that graces your lips!’”
“Wh-what?”
“It’s my favorite story! I think I know what my justice is! It’s to make everyone happy!”
Ardee recited the line with great familiarity and hastened her footsteps. Now Lyu felt she really would fall if she didn’t keep up and was too busy landing her feet to defy the human girl’s whims. It was like she’d been suddenly pulled up on stage to play the main part in a slapstick comedy.
“What an odd couple,” muttered the dwarf. “Though I must say, it does look quite fun…”
“Yeah, I think I like it!” said the man. “Go, girls, go!”
“You’re so beautiful!” said the girl.
As they watched, the initially miserable grown-ups cast aside their gloom, hooked on Ardee’s smile. Soon, they were hooting and whistling, calling out to the pair. They were accompanied by the whoops of children, jumping up and dancing on the stones. Before long, Ardee and Lyu were completely surrounded by a wall of people.
“See?” sang Ardee. “Everyone’s smiling now! They’re clapping their hands, stamping their feet, and getting all excited!”
“B-but they’re looking at us!” Lyu protested. “Everyone’s watching me trip over my own feet! This isn’t making me happy, it’s just embarrassing! Stop it, Ardee!”
“No! We’re going to keep dancing until you like it!”
“Wh-what…?!”
So long as Ardee refused to listen to her, there wasn’t much Lyu could do that wasn’t clumsily attempting to stay upright. It was then that a familiar face appeared out of the crowd.
“I thought I heard loud voices…” the girl said. “What on earth are you two doing?”
“Ah, Asfi!” said Ardee. “Do you want to join us, too?”
“I’ll pass,” said Asfi, a tired expression on her face. “I took enough dance lessons in the castle where I grew up to last me a lifetime.”
“A-Andromeda! Save me!” came Lyu’s voice, pinning her final hopes of salvation on the blue-haired girl, but Asfi mercilessly shrugged.
“I’m afraid there isn’t anyone who can stop Ardee now. Certainly not me…Besides,” she said, cracking a mischievous grin, “I don’t get to see you like this very often. I think I’ll stay and watch awhile.”
“Andromedaaa!!”
The dance continued. There was no music, no instruments, and yet the joyous cheers of those nearby was all the melody Ardee needed. With her smile, she banished the sadness and pain that lurked within all of their hearts.
“…Leon!” she said suddenly. “Justice will persevere!”
“Huh?!”
By now, Lyu was so embarrassed, she could hardly remember how depressed she’d just been.
“Even if the answer we reach isn’t the right one at first, justice can change and keep going!”
This was the guiding principle behind Ardee’s sense of justice. Even if it wasn’t the answer Lyu wanted to hear, it was what she saw, what she felt. This was what she carried around with her every second of every day.
“Softness can turn to hardness, warmth can turn to cold, but our justice can always change into a new flower! Or maybe not a flower at all, but a star that shines down on everyone!”
Lyu stared back in shock. She suddenly couldn’t remember when she last blinked.
“Someone we save can go on to save someone else! Today’s kindness can become tomorrow’s smiles!”
Perhaps that was just her wish. A worthless, unattainable dream. But to Lyu’s ears, it was hope. A hope that spread its wings and took flight within her heart.
“Ardee…”
“Smile, Leon. Smile for the sake of your justice, no matter what form it takes!”
Lyu stopped dancing. She reached for her mask and showed the girl the smile she longed to see.
“…I will!” she said.
Ardee couldn’t be happier. The two began dancing again. Soon, instruments joined in and added to the chorus of cheers, and the entire street became a ballroom in the gloam. Smiles returned to people’s faces, and the sounds of good cheer echoed across the town.
“…Justice will persevere, huh?” muttered Asfi as she watched the two girls. Her elegant eyes burned every last detail of the happy scene before her into her brain. “I’ll remember those words in the sunset.”
The girls remained bathed in the song of justice, dancing to its beat, until the dark crept in from the east and night fell at last.
Lyu saw a light in the young girl’s smile. She vowed never to forget what Ardee had told her.
One day until the Great Conflict…
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