“Maria, we’re really going to be late now!” Elune threw open the door with some force. “Huh? She’s not here. The dress is gone too… Did she just leave without a word? My word, what a troublesome child…”
Maria was not there. The pool of blood and the Origin core had completely disappeared as well.
✦ ✦ ✦
The royal palace had a balcony overlooking the courtyard. Unlike the balcony used by the king to address the people when giving a speech, this balcony normally had tables and chairs set up on it and was often used for tea parties by the royal family and their associates. Satuhkie and Chatani sat there together. They were relaxed, but they had two soldiers standing watch at the entrance to the balcony, maintaining vigilance.
“Are you sure you’re okay not going to the party, Satou?”
Satuhkie had also been invited to the party hosted by Leitch. It was almost time for the party to begin at any moment, but he didn’t seem to be going.
“I know my place quite well. Someone like me would only sour the mood. Are you sure you’re fine with not going to the party? You did quite a lot in the battle, didn’t you?”
“Even if there is delicious food on offer, I can’t eat it. It’d just make me feel empty.”
“You have an appetite?”
“Well, it’s a relief that I don’t get hungry, but still—when I see something delicious, I feel like I wanna eat it.”
“Is it impossible for you to create a device that will let you experience taste?”
“There aren’t enough kinds of sensors to make something like that work.”
“This world is still underdeveloped, I suppose, which means that humanity still has room for progress.”
Chatani shrugged his shoulders. “You’re a positive one,” he said sarcastically and smiled.
Satuhkie, pitching forward slightly, made him a proposal.
“If possible, there’s something that I’d like you to cooperate with me on, Doctor Chatani.”
“It probably wouldn’t be good for me to have too much influence on civilization. Civilization as it is now must be advanced by the people of today.”
“Unfortunately, the learning devices destroyed by the old civilization are greatly related to the development of our civilization.”
“Ugh, yeah, right. But I’m gonna pass on that. I think I’m gonna retire for a while. Now that I’ve done what I needed to do, my motivation has suddenly withered away.”
“Does someone who has fulfilled their duty feel cheerful, then? Like a load has been taken off your shoulders? Or do you feel empty?”
“I feel super happy, obviously.”
“Is that so?”
“It is. Humans are creatures who aspire toward beautiful goals, but ideals are only ideals, in the end.”
“I think pursuing ideals is important too. I—”
Chatani began speaking like a dreamer. Then his voice and image suddenly grew distorted, right before Satuhkie’s eyes.
“Huh…? What’s going on? I’ve never had a malfunction like this before.”
“Doctor Chatani? What’s wrong? Did something happen to the main unit?”
“You! You’re Wer—stop! You’ll destroy me—”
“Chatani? Chatani!” Satuhkie stood up forcefully, knocking over his chair. He rushed over to Chatani, but the man disappeared.
Immediately afterward, he heard agonized death cries from the entrance to the balcony.
“Ughh!”
“Guwaaaah!” The soldiers who had been keeping watch had died, impaled by twisted swords of light.
“What’s going on?!” When Satuhkie turned to look, there was a young woman in a red dress with a swirling face standing there. The woman held a baby, which also had a swirling face, in her arms as she slowly approached Satuhkie.
“Good child. Good child.”
“Kyah!”
“Good child. Good child.”
“Babbo! Kyah!”
“Good child…good child…” The girl repeated the same words over and over in a lifeless voice, like she was broken.
“Maria? Is that you? What in the world happened to you? That body…?”
Maria was barefoot, her feet pattering across the floor.
“When we stray from our path, we are destined to be brought back to it someday.”
When she took one step forward, Satuhkie took one step back, keeping the distance between them.
“Stop. There’s still time. Linus was supposed to have made you happy!” he shouted desperately at her. But it didn’t make any sense to Maria.
“I. We. We mistakenly believed that we had the right to choose. Such pitiful clowns we were.” The conflict was already long ended.
“There’s no need to do this anymore! The role of the Saint should be finished!” Perhaps Satuhkie truly did love humanity. But his words were too shallow to counter Maria’s personal despair.
“Even the path that I had thought I walked of my own will, I had gone around and around, twirling like a spiral. Eventually, it will converge.”
Satuhkie’s back hit the railing. There was no longer any escape.
“The path you ought to be taking isn’t wrong!”
Maria raised her face from the baby and looked him straight in the eyes, directing her spiral at him.
“If there is a mistake, it is that I thought there was a ‘path I should take.’ Even though I am…this.”
Then she summoned a sword of light.
“Urk… The people… The future of the world…”
The blade of judgment pierced Satuhkie’s abdomen. He fell backward into the courtyard.
“It’s still…in darkness…”
His head cracked hard against a rock. When Maria approached the railing, she looked over the balcony, down at his corpse.
“You. Me. This world.” Strangely, her heart felt lighter. She had found her true salvation in complete and total resignation.
“I pray for your happiness in the afterlife.” Maria narrowed her eyes, as if in prayer. Then she was enveloped in light and disappeared.
✦ ✦ ✦
Satuhkie Ranahgrky. Died age forty-nine. Death by falling from the balcony of the royal castle. Cause of death was a cerebral contusion caused by hitting his head hard on the ground. May his soul rest in peace.