4
“All dry!”
“Shaddap—don’t say that over and over!”
The next day, well into Fire Time, Garfiel was wandering through the city alongside Mimi with a guilty look on his face.
Mimi cackled as she tugged at the part of her white robe over her chest that was still dirty from Garfiel’s tears, snot, and drool, though it was completely dried now.
“That’s filthy. Go wash it off at some waterin’ hole somewhere.”
“Mm, isn’t it fiiine? I’ll change when we get back to the inn… I didn’t return yesterday, so the lady’s gotta be real mad! Hetaro and TB will probably be crying!”
“…Sorry about that.”
“Don’t worry about it… Mimi told Garf he’s a good, good boy and let him cry himself dry—that’s all.”
Garfiel’s meager apology brought a naive smile to Mimi’s face. He couldn’t lift his head up at all.
He’d made a fool of himself, crying all night long, and before he realized it, he’d slumped down and fallen asleep in her arms. He was somehow remaining calm at the moment, but he couldn’t keep up with Mimi’s everyday antics at all today.
In the end, Garfiel harbored feelings of guilt and couldn’t bring himself to say proper words of thanks.
“So what are we doing this morning? Going to meet your mom?”
“Pfft…! Wh-what are you talkin’ about?! Meet her…? Like hell I am!”
Garfiel was deep in thought when that explosive suggestion made him open his eyes wide in shock. Mimi simply responded with an “Oh really?” as she tilted her head with an innocent look on her face. “But Liara is Garf’s mom, right? Don’t you have lots to talk about?”
“You really didn’t pay attention to anything that came up yesterday, did you?”
Though she had instinctually cut right to the heart of the matter, Mimi apparently hadn’t picked up on any of the finer details.
Mulling over how he ought to explain to her his difficult position in relation to that family, Garfiel quickly discarded the idea. The answer came out with his tears the night before.
“It’s fine. Mo… That person is better off not knowin’ I’m her son.”
“Garf, you’re fine with that?”
“It’s fine… Ah, haven’t thought about if I should tell Sis or Granny, though.”
If they knew the facts, Frederica and Ryuzu would probably agonize over it just like he was. If that’s really what came to pass, Garfiel might eventually end up regretting speaking to them about it.
But if the situation was reversed, Garfiel absolutely would have wanted to know the truth. After all, even if the only thing that accomplished was sharing that cruel conclusion, both women were still family to Garfiel.
“Mm, that’s so complicated! Mimi doesn’t even know for sure if she has a mother!”
“…You don’t know your own mom?”
“That’s right… Mimi and Hetaro and TB—none of us know anything about our parents. Seems like we got abandoned because it was too hard to raise triplets. So Rossi took us in, and now we’re with the lady and the captain! We’re all family!”
“…That’s a pretty big family, huh?”
He was able to glean that Mimi had lived a hard life. From the casual way she spoke, it hadn’t been all tragic, but he somehow understood that it certainly wasn’t easy.
Mimi didn’t let any of that show, however. Without any deep thought behind it, Garfiel patted her on the head.
“—Wah!”
Instantly, Mimi brushed his hand aside and hopped backward. Garfiel was surprised by her dramatic reaction. Mimi went, “Ughhhhhh,” making noises with a red face.
“For some reason, I’ve been feeling weird since yesterday. I get all mushy and tingly when I get close to Garf.”
“O-oh, I see. That sounds rough… Maybe we should walk a little farther apart, then?”
“I don’t wanna. So we should stand not too far but not too close!”
Inching slightly closer, Mimi walked alongside him, just out of arm’s reach. He felt that Mimi’s face was a little red as she made a beaming smile from that position.
“Ah, come to think of it, we have Sowarie! Let’s eat some!”
“Ahhh, right.”
Seemingly trying to distract him from the redness on her cheeks, Mimi took the bag of sweets out of the satchel slung over her shoulder. For an instant, Garfiel’s chest throbbed in pain at the sight of the bag, but he accepted the sweet that Mimi offered to him, gazing at the treat in the palm of his hand.
A Sowarie was a sweet-tasting baked pastry fashioned out of bread dough with cream and bean jam inside; it was a noontime snack that was tasty and filling. Given the time of day, they were basically having big, round Sowarie for breakfast.
“Mm-hmm! Sweet! Tasty! Yum-yum!”
“…They’re good, huh.”
Mimi’s praise was over-the-top, but Garfiel found the flavor striking as well.
It was impressive—not too sweet and incredibly soft and fluffy. They would’ve probably tasted even better fresh. If this had been his mother’s specialty, perhaps he’d had a number of chances to savor this himself—
“—Man, I’m getting too sentimental.”
Clicking his tongue at those lingering attachments, Garfiel stuffed the remaining Sowarie into his cheeks whole. Mimi opened her mouth wide in an attempt to copy him and managed to get cream all over her face.
Garfiel sank into thought once again as he helped her wipe it off. Truthfully, the previous day had been full of ups and downs. Each event had served as a trial, but one unambiguously good thing had happened.
Though he’d put on such an unsightly display the day before, the phantom was nowhere to be seen this morning.
If that phantom was a representation of weakness in Garfiel’s heart, it wouldn’t have been strange for the events of the previous night to trigger it and bring it into even sharper relief. But that hadn’t happened at all.
Just maybe, that phantom might never appear before him ever again. If so, this was an opportunity granted by the sheer presence of the girl who’d stayed beside him—
“—Ahem, ahem! Can all you meatbags hear this?”
That instant, a voice suddenly greeted Garfiel and Mimi’s eardrums.
“If you meatbags are listening to my voice, go ahead and shake in your boots, and any meatbags not listening, would you just drop dead and save me a whooole lot of trouble? Bwa-ha-ha-ha!”
After exchanging looks as that voice continued rambling, Garfiel and Mimi simultaneously turned to the sky. It was because that voice seemed to be calling out to them from there.
“What the hell’s with that stupid-soundin’ voice…?”
“Mimi knows! This voice is coming from some super-awesome metia! In this city, you can hear singing every morning thanks to it. Yesterday, I slept through it, though!”
As Garfiel questioned the source of the voice, Mimi raised a hand up and rattled off a quick explanation. Garfiel assumed she meant that they were hearing someone via the power of a special metia and not that it was simply a very loud voice.
The whole time that exchange was going on, that high-pitched voice continued pouring down from the sky.
“So, so, so—did any idiots take me up on that offer and die just now? If there aren’t any, then so be it, but it sure would put a damper on my mood after I got all excited to talk up a storm!”
The annoying voice reverberated across the Water Gate City, drawing looks of surprise and bewilderment from every pedestrian who heard it. Even they didn’t seem to have any idea who the speaker was as they, too, stared up at the sky in confusion.
According to Mimi’s explanation, the metia was normally used to send singing to every corner of the city each morning, but Garfiel was thoroughly convinced that the owner of this voice was incapable of anything so sensitive.
Her objective was unclear. Her character was vulgar. What he did know—
“Breathe in, breathe out: That’s all it takes for mongrels like you to ruin my mood. You really are pieces of trash with no redeemable value at all, aren’t ya?! If all you do is eat, go into heat, and drool without doing anything with your lives, then it’d be better if you were corpses instead! Know what? Just die already! Please just die already! Really, I’m begging you! Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!”
—was that the speaker was incredibly twisted.
“Garf… This is reaaally creepy.”
With the speaker’s motive still unclear, that unpleasant voice made Garfiel clench his fist in anger. Tugging at his sleeve, Mimi’s normal sunniness had been subdued as she gazed at the sky with concern.
Seeing her like that really got to Garfiel somehow. That kind of expression didn’t belong on her face.
“Now then, all you meatbags ignoring my entirely valid opinion, have any of you ignorant slobs finally noticed the purpose of this broadcast? The reeeal purpose?”
“Hmm…? What purpose is there besides gettin’ on everyone’s nerves…?”
“—The fact that my voice is reaching you means that I…or rather, we have taken control of this city’s heart, doesn’t it? Ah, incidentally, the four control towers at the edge of the city are also in our hands!”
“!! The control towers?!”
That ominous statement dripped with malice and made Garfiel’s breath catch.
He’d heard that the four control towers in the city were crucial facilities for regulating the volume of water across the entirety of Pristella. It was said that their functions were unchanged from when the Water Gate City was used to trap a being of tremendous power so very long ago—and now they had fallen into the hands of this mysterious entity.
It was tantamount to this maniac holding the entire city hostage.
“Now this city is a miniature garden where we can go around amusing ourselves, abusing and toying with you as we please, oh my! You meatbags are just like insects in a cage, aren’t you?! No cards to play! No bright prospects! No dreams or hopes! Do you get what that means, huh?!”
Garfiel grimaced as the sadistic voice being broadcast across the city cracked. Simultaneously, the people in the surrounding area were only now beginning to belatedly comprehend the gravity of the situation; disorder and dismay were spreading.
Seemingly pleased at the mounting chaos, the announcer spoke even shriller, becoming more self-absorbed.
“Do you get it? Did you get it through your thick skulls? You’re so pathetic, every last one of you running around in a panic as you finally realize what I’ve been telling you all along! It’s too pathetic! Anyway, I, a being of profound beauty and mercy, have happy news for you irredeemable, pathetic bastards!”
“ ”
“My objective is the Witch’s bones kept somewhere in this city! I want them. I want them so much that it aches and keeps me up at night, so could you please put in some effort? If you deliver what I ask…I’ll probably even reconsider the control-tower thing!”
Having taken the entire city hostage, the speaker now presented her demand. The item she mentioned, the Witch’s bones, made Garfiel grimace, but the surrounding unrest only deepened.
The high-pitched voice cackled, as if the speaker had been waiting for that very moment above all others.
“Bwa-ha! Oh nooo, if I don’t finally introduce myself, people like you will start trying to escape from reality right about now, huh? That’s why I, one of the wise and marvelous, will point out what’s happening loud and clear so that even you can understand it!”
With that malicious voice leading the city by the nose and chaos beginning to swirl around them, Garfiel and Mimi drew shoulder to shoulder, girding themselves for whatever might get announced next.
It was then that the now-familiar voice declared in the broadcast with complete satisfaction—
“I am the Witch Cult’s Archbishop of Lust—
“It’s me, Capella Emerada Lugunica! Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!! Revere, worship, kneel, and beg and piss and shit in your pants as you pathetically wail, meatbags! Bwa-ha-ha-ha!!”
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