4
“Lady Anastasia, we’ve ascertained something troubling.” Kiritaka looked pale as he broached the subject.
Anastasia furrowed her brow. She had just received a report from her conversation mirror on the table that the squad dispatched to retake city hall was engaging the cultists. Once the battle started, all she could do was sit and wait for good news. It was frustrating, but given that she could not take part in battle, her only choice was to ride out times like this with prayers and faith in her people. That was why she had silently prepared herself in front of the conversation mirror like always, but—
“That doesn’t sound like good news. What happened?”
“I imagine you are aware that I’ve ordered my subordinates to protect the members of the Council of Ten.”
“You mentioned that, yes. If they are captured by the other side, then it would only be a matter of time before the location of the Witch’s bones you are hiding gets out. You don’t mean to say…” Anastasia’s expression clouded. “Has someone been caught—and the location already been revealed…?”
“…No, it is far graver than that. The Council of Ten has been wiped out. According to the reports, every last member other than me has been slain.”
“What?”
Anastasia had prepared herself for the worst, but that was even darker news than she could have imagined. Seeing her reaction, Kiritaka shook his head, visibly agitated.
“Every last one. My subordinates confirmed they were all found dead either at their homes or in their workplaces. Judging from the conditions of their bodies, they were likely dead before the first broadcast occurred.”
“Wait a minute; that doesn’t make any sense. Aren’t they after the remains…?” Getting that far, Anastasia suddenly came to a perfectly reasonable explanation. She had just naturally said “they,” but the Witch Cult was not the sort of group that logically worked together toward a single goal. Currently, there were at least three different Archbishops whose presence in Pristella had been confirmed, but the plan to take back city hall had been predicated in part on the assumption that they were ill-suited to working together. When she considered that as well as the fact that the members of the council had been killed, a hypothesis started to present itself. Though it was hard to believe…
“Only members of the Council of Ten know the location of the Witch’s bones. And the recovery of the remains is their goal. And yet someone is murdering the people who know that location one after the other… It doesn’t make sense unless there are two competing goals at work here.”
“One faction that wants the Witch’s bones, and another faction that wants to stop them?” Kiritaka had apparently reached the same conclusion.
“…If Natsuki is to be believed, it might not even be only two different sides.” Anastasia responded with an even more unappealing thought.
Honestly, it would almost be funny was it not so deadly serious: The cultists were maliciously illogical. Their inability to work together was both an opening to exploit and one of the sources of their utter unpredictability. And as galling as it was to say about the lost members of the council, their deaths could not even really be called the worst outcome, since they meant the remains were still safe from being stolen, and the city wouldn’t be immediately plunged beneath the waves. But they also made clear—
“I’m sure you realize it, too, Mr. Kiritaka, but…”
“Their next target is surely this company and me. Lady Anastasia, you should prepare to evacuate the premises.”
“—What are you planning?”
Dispensing with the details, Anastasia questioned Kiritaka directly about what he intended to do. She recognized his resolve as a representative of the city and his strong sense of duty as a member of the Council of Ten. She could understand his position, but—
“Don’t go throwing your life away, y’hear? No matter what happens, just keep breathing.”
Kiritaka raised his eyebrows in surprise as Anastasia forcefully stared him down.
“…I’m surprised. I would have expected you to be more inclined to cut losses.”
“Did you think I was obsessed with money above all else? My company trades under the motto ‘Your friendly neighborhood shop.’”
“Pardon me. Were time permitting, I would have loved to get to know you better over a meal, but…”
“You’ve got your Songstress you’ve set your heart on, right? Don’t go cheating on her behind her back.”
“Yes, you’re right—and unfortunately time won’t permit it, either.”
Anastasia’s jaw clenched. He was right. There was no time. If the enemy who was after the council members was coming for Kiritaka next, then the Muse Company would be an ideal hunting ground—and there were far too many people there who could not fight.
“I’m aware it is not my place to do so, but I’ve already ordered my subordinates to begin escorting all those who fled here as well as anyone who is injured to the nearest shelter. You should take the members of the Iron Fangs and Ferris and escape as well. My subordinates and I will act separately. It is too dangerous for me to go with you.”
“You have some place in mind to go, right?”
“Of course. I have no intention of sitting around waiting to die…” Kiritaka straightened the sleeves of his white outfit and flashed a smile.
—And then, all of a sudden, a shock wave shot through the building, breaking all the windows at once.
“—gh!”
The crashing sound of a storm of broken glass pummeled Anastasia’s ears. She immediately dove to the floor.
Always be on guard— Was it not for the habit she had formed as a young girl, it would not have been a pretty sight. She would have been showered by a wave of jagged glass shards. Slipping the conversation mirror she had reflexively grabbed into her pocket, Anastasia looked up.
Kiritaka had also dropped to the floor, but he immediately leaped up and shouted out the door.
“What happened?! Someone report…”
“—Sorry? And thank you.”
The voice sent a shudder down Anastasia’s spine, and she immediately grabbed Kiritaka’s sleeve and pulled him down with all her might. She was light, but when she used her full body weight, the slender Kiritaka could not resist and fell down backward. A golden chain tore through the stone wall, passing right through where he had been standing. A cloud of dust jumped into the air, accompanied by the grating cacophony of destruction as the golden chain spun and wreaked havoc across the entire floor.
“ ”
Kiritaka just barely avoided the attack thanks to Anastasia pulling at his sleeve. Just a second slower, and he would have been split in two at the stomach. After just barely avoiding disaster thanks to that split-second reaction, the two merchants had barely any time to recover before an unwelcome guest greeted them.
“Ahh, aaaaah, magnificent. Caring for one another, helping one another, entrusting oneself to another—those bonds are what allowed you to survive! You’ve shown me something so…so wonderfully beautiful. It deserves a round of applause.”
A high, cracking voice rang out as someone approached, glass crunching underfoot with each step. Anastasia and Kiritaka caught their breath as the footsteps finally reached them. The half-broken door was kicked in.
Breaking through the door by force, a grotesque figure emerged from the dust cloud—a hideous presence covered from head to toe in white bandages, with silver hair and purple eyes that seemed to be glaring at everything in the world.
It was someone who matched a description Anastasia had heard just recently—
“…The Archbishop of Wrath…”
“Oh, to think you would know little old me without even needing an introduction! How embarrassing. My reputation precedes me, apparently. It would be nice if it wasn’t due to nasty rumors.”
When she put her hand in front of her mouth, the chain rattled intrusively. And there did not seem to be any deceit in the way she showed embarrassment. It seemed to be her genuine reaction, which only made her seem all the more abnormal.
Her figure, her presence, her speech—it was almost like she was a foreign entity in the world.
“I am Sirius Romanée-Conti, serving as Archbishop of Wrath. I hope you’ll treat me kindly.”
The monster, Sirius, bowed politely, greeting them with unreserved affection. In the face of such a twisted being, Anastasia could not help but gasp for air, as if her soul were desperately trying to free itself.
The monster smiling endearingly at them had just seconds earlier wrought destruction on the building. It was weird that she did not seem to feel any shame at that. That she did not seem to think anything at all of it.
“Can you stand, Lady Anastasia?”
The monster was just a stone’s throw away. Kiritaka cursed his quivering knees as he forced himself to his feet. Anastasia had started to respond when she felt a swell of animosity rising in her heart.
“Huh? Wh—? Do you even need to ask…?”
A swell of fear rose, threatening to break her spirit as she tried to stand. She could not maintain the strength in her slender legs, and her gasping for breath grew more and more pained. Forget standing; she was on the verge of collapsing on the spot. But right as that concern flared—
“Ugh!” “Hah!”
“—gh?!”
An intense shock wave turned the shards of glass scattered around the room into a deadly whirlwind. The bandaged creature absorbed the full brunt of it with a groan and fell back.
The ceiling cracked between the monster and Anastasia, and two shadows fell to the ground—two small figures, orange ears and tails standing on end, the cat siblings howling on all fours.
Anastasia had been overwhelmed by dread, but when she saw them, her eyes shot open.
“Hetaro! TB!”
“Are you safe, miss?!” “That’s the Archbishop… Gh!”
They only glanced back, still focused on Sirius. Their high shouts stirred Anastasia’s heart. She stomped her foot with everything she had.
“I’m…fine. This is nothing! But are y’all okay?!”
The kitten siblings were supposed to be sleeping and recovering from the heavy wounds they had endured in order to keep their elder sister Mimi alive despite the incurable wound she had received. They should not have been able to move, and yet here they were. Anastasia was worried that something terrible had happened to Mimi, but…
“That’s not it, Lady Anastasia!”
“—F-Ferris?”
Overhead, Anastasia spotted a cat-eared girl—who turned out to actually be the knight who specialized in wind, Ferris—peering down from the hole the two had made in the ceiling. Ferris shook his head as he pointed to Hetaro and TB.
“Ferri used a forbidden technique! The same thing I did with Subawu’s leg!”
“Natsuki’s…”
Hearing that, Anastasia remembered what condition Subaru had been in when the attack squad departed. After encountering cultists earlier, Subaru had been badly wounded, to the point where he had trouble even walking. But he was still determined to fight, so Ferris had performed a special intervention, using a technique that let him not feel the pain. But if that was the only reason TB and Hetaro were standing, then—
“ ”
Blood was pooling at their feet. Crimson already stained the bandages wrapped around their bodies beneath their white robes. In exchange for not feeling pain, the two of them—no, all three of them were having their lives shaved away.
Unease swelled, tearing at Anastasia’s heart, burning away inside her—
“—Miss! Eyes forward!!”
“Hetaro…”
“Sis would have told us to help you no matter how much it might hurt! We’re just following through! What about you? What will you do, miss?”
“I…”
Anastasia gulped at Hetaro’s question. He was normally so well behaved and reserved, usually having to be the responsible one who held back the uninhibited Mimi or the boisterous Ricardo. But this time, he was howling and coughing up blood.
Faced with that, what would Anastasia—what would Anastasia Hoshin do?
“—Hetaro, TB, stall for time. Can you two hold out for two minutes?”
The strain visible on her face, she asked them to carry a heavy load on their small backs. The two of them did not even turn, their long tails swaying left and right.
“Sis would say, ‘Leave it to me!’”
“We’d be pretty cool if we could pull it off!”
Hetaro and TB were still smiling, even in the face of everything. They kicked off the floor—and then the wall, closing with the enemy. Sirius blocked their staffs with her arms. Faced with the two brothers’ teamwork, the monster’s purple eyes flared.
“Such adorable sibling love. Are you twins? Ah, how truly endearing…”
“Sorry, but—!” “We’re the younger two of triplets!”
The metallic chain spun, crashing into a blue magic barrier. Leaving the battlefield being viciously carved away to the brothers, Anastasia looked up.
“Ferris! Use my people to get Mimi and Beatrice out of here! We’ll meet back up outside!”
“—Ngh. Y-yes, ma’am! Understood!”
Seeing Ferris slip away from the hole, Anastasia grabbed Kiritaka’s sleeve and ran to the window. The door out of the room had become a battlefield that the two of them could not pass, so they would simply have to use an emergency exit, and it wasn’t like there were any other choices.
“Ugh, kh…”
Stepping out of the window frame, she set one foot on the ledge outside. At the lip was an emergency ladder that was set up to allow travel downstairs along the outside of the building. Anastasia clenched her fingers tightly, using the pain to stop trembling before climbing down. They had been on the third floor of the building, so they went back inside at the second-floor window.
“It’s a little…too soon…to breathe easy…”
Hetaro and TB were still fighting strong on the floor above. The longer it took, though, the more dangerous it became for them, and the more dangerous it became for Mimi, too. It would not be difficult for Ferris to get everyone out of the fourth floor if he directed the Iron Fangs well. The problem was where to go after escaping the Muse Company building—
“—Meeting up with everyone who went to city hall would be best,” Anastasia concluded after getting her head in gear.
“Agreed. It would be best to preserve the greatest chance possible of you joining up with them,” Kiritaka said, panting.
She understood what he was getting at. It was the same sort of logic he had expressed before Sirius appeared. The enemy was after the Council of Ten, so they needed to limit the damage while preserving a way out as well as they could. Knowing just how hard it would be to get away with that Archbishop harrying them while they tried to escape.
“Try to hurry to the center of the city as quickly as you can. My subordinates and I will draw that thing’s attention.”
Anastasia could not say anything in the face of his determination. The more calmly she tried to think it through, the clearer it became that that was the most reasonable conclusion. They could not save everyone, so at the very least they needed to make deliberate decisions that would save the most people instead.
“Young master, we’ve made our preparations. Let’s do this in style.”
As the two of them went out into the hall, Kiritaka’s subordinates, the White Dragon’s Scale, were gathering. Seeing them already prepared for battle, Kiritaka calmly shrugged.
“In style, huh? You know, I was always more partial to reserved and calm performances…”
“I don’t want a lecture about reserve from the man who fell head over heels for Liliana! What a crock!”
The men waiting for the order to rush past the line between life and death burst into laughter.
It was too close a relationship to be described by a word like subordinate, but Anastasia could see herself in Kiritaka. He loved the White Dragon’s Scale just as she loved the Iron Fangs, and he was putting his life on the line to protect his beautiful city alongside his beloved comrades.
No one who saw it could fail to be struck by the tragic heroism of it. The faces of men going off to fight for something they loved, for something they took pride in.
“…That’s not fair at all…” Anastasia murmured to herself.
“—Lady Anastasia, I leave Pristella in your hands.”
Kiritaka entrusted Anastasia with his beloved city as he prepared to set foot on the battlefield.
Anastasia bit her lip at his earnest plea as he continued—his voice filled with love, expectation, and devotion.
“Please protect this beautiful city…and my beloved Songstress from these villains.”
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