Chapter 116

Pure Concept “Time” In the center of the north, in the Wild Frontier, stood the City of Ruins. The region was unsafe and considered uninhabitable by humans, although the Wild Frontier occasionally offered unique resources. Reckless people known as adventurers, mostly members of the Commons, braved its dangers to search for materials and ancient relics that could be sold for a high price. While seeking treasures that would make them a fortune, they sometimes dealt in illegal items in the process. The taciturn engineer who helped Sahara and Maya was at least partly involved in such illicit business. He employed distribution channels that skirted the eyes of law enforcement to reach the Wild Frontier. While the Faust had spread warnings that terrorists like Flarette and the governor of the Fourth had infiltrated the north, its members couldn’t very well check every package on a transport carrying illegal items. Even if they did, this freight train had found a way to avoid inspections. One of its current packages shook with a quiet clunk. “There we go.” A head of wavy silver hair poked out from a wooden crate inside a shipping container. Sahara had managed to sneak on board because the engineer had made a false bottom in one of the boxes. It had been very cramped inside. Sahara inhaled deeply, looking relieved. “Okay…looks like we’re clear.” Fortunately, there was at least some space inside the shipping container. Either the engineer had left things out to make room, or he hadn’t had much to ship in the first place. Sahara and Maya were on a freight train that mostly carried contraband, so it obviously wasn’t very comfortable. The air was dusty, and there were no seats, so they had no protection from the clattering and shaking of the train on the tracks. There was a serious draft, too, since this wasn’t a passenger car. The only rule of design was that it had to keep shipments from falling off. Naturally, spending half a day in such an environment was less than pleasurable. The shipment with Sahara and Maya was bound to be transferred at some point, but the next train wouldn’t be much better. Sahara activated the borrowed Guiding heater included in the container, then tapped on her shadow. “We did it. Now we just need to make sure we don’t freeze to death.” A little girl crawled out of Sahara’s shadow. There was only enough room for one person inside the wooden crate. “Are you taunting me?” Maya glowered and turned away from Sahara in a huff. “You’re lucky you can still feel heat, Sahara. Warmth is such a nice feeling, you know. Why don’t you really soak it up and enjoy it, hmm? Must be nice to be more like a real human being than me.” The girl was obviously sulking, each sentence a pointed jab. Sahara winced at her verbal misstep and fell into sheepish silence. Ever since Maya had an emotional outburst at the workshop, things had been very awkward between the pair. After accidentally showing her weakness, Maya put on a stubborn attitude that she refused to drop. It was essentially a defense mechanism against the loneliness that had haunted her since the traumatic betrayal that ended her friend group a thousand years ago. Maya was too young to stop being rude to others to protect herself. Sahara had never been considerate enough to understand the subtleties behind other people’s words and actions. She understood that Maya was angry, but she couldn’t quite grasp the cause, and she was sorely tempted to just dismiss the whole thing as a pain in the butt. The result was hours of silence between Sahara and Maya, who sat facing away from her with her knees drawn to her chest. What was she supposed to do in a situation like this? Sahara still had no idea. They were going to have to travel like this for half a day. Sahara groaned inwardly at the uncomfortable conditions and awkward silence. How long had the train been jolting them around? Sahara woke up when she felt the freight train beginning to slow. She and Maya had barely spoken at all the entire time. They’d left around noon, and now it was nighttime. Maya was dozing quietly. At last, the train stopped. This had to be the station where the shipment would be transferred. Maya’s eyes opened as the train car shook loudly. She blinked a few times, then looked at Sahara. Their gazes met for a few seconds. Then she hurriedly turned away, probably remembering that they were fighting. Irritated that a weakling was putting on such a strong front, Sahara ignored the girl and peered through the gaps in the wall to the outside. The transfer would probably begin soon. She’d been told that the entire shipping container would be moved at once, but it was safest to hide in the wooden crate. “…Hmm?” Just as she moved to hide in the luggage, she heard a commotion outside. Listening closer, she could tell that there was some kind of argument. Was it their pursuers? Sahara hesitated, unsure what to do. Maya picked up on the predicament and stiffened. If they fled from the freight train, there’d be no chance to meet Hakua in time. But there was no point trying to fight their pursuers, either. Even if they fended off their enemies, the freight train obviously wouldn’t let them back on board once they realized there were stowaways. Would they have to simply hide in the box and pray that no one found them? Sahara couldn’t think of any other options, but then another plan suddenly crossed her mind. What if she went out there as a decoy? It seemed like a surprisingly good plan. Were Sahara to let herself get caught, it would make for the perfect diversion. The people who didn’t know the whole story were more worried about finding Sahara than Maya. They didn’t know that Maya was an Otherworlder, much less a unique offshoot restored from a piece of Pandæmonium, one of the Four Major Human Errors. All Sahara had to do was leave Maya here and distract the pursuers until the transfer was complete. Even if Sahara were caught, Maya could still accomplish her goal as long as Sahara didn’t give up any information about her. While she considered the idea, Sahara suddenly cocked her head. “Wait… Why would I do that?” As soon as she asked herself the question, she realized the idea was laughably ridiculous. Why in the world would she accept a plan like that? It would be one thing if Maya had ordered her to do it under threat from the curse, but it didn’t make any sense to sacrifice herself unbidden. Besides, Maya was definitely marching toward a trap. Getting stopped here might even work out for the best. More than anything, Sahara wanted to live. She didn’t want to get hurt. She was always looking out for number one, and that had never seemed like a problem to her. She had to survive and get stronger. Maybe then she could be a beautiful person like Menou, who could do things for others… “That’s so stupid.” Sahara shook her head to dispel the idea from her mind. Really, she only longed to become that kind of person because it was impossible for her. She’d learned that the hard way when she fought Menou in the desert and lost hopelessly. Sahara could never be a beautiful person like Menou, even if she died trying. It was better to know one’s place. Sahara lowered her eyes…and found herself looking at a trembling child. This girl couldn’t open her heart to anyone. She wore a bold facade because she had no one to depend on. Although she lamented her lack of strength to accomplish anything by herself, she could only get her way by wielding her weakness like a weapon. That child was sitting right in front of her. “…I want to be needed.” For some reason, that moment of vulnerability stuck out in Sahara’s memory. She didn’t know what she was thinking. Sahara stood up unsteadily. She turned away from Maya and reached for the door of the shipping container. What was she doing? A part of her observed her own actions as though from afar, trying to stop this. Sahara knew her logical instinct was right, yet she couldn’t stop. “S…Sahara?” Maya called to her faintly, looking distressed. The terror of possible abandonment was written all over her face, which annoyed Sahara a little. “Where…do you think you’re going?” “Huh? Oh, um, yeah. Just, uh…” She couldn’t come up with a good excuse. If she said she was going to make a distraction of herself to save Maya, the little girl probably wouldn’t believe her. After all, Sahara didn’t even believe it herself. Instead, she blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “G-gotta use the bathroom.” “Huh?” Maya was at a loss for words in the face of this unexpected response. A wave of self-loathing washed over Sahara as the girl stared at her with utter confusion. Surely, she could’ve come up with something better than that. Sahara couldn’t even pretend to be cool. Her shoulders slumped with slight despair over her inability to be the person she wanted, Sahara opened the door of the shipping container to where their pursuers were presumably waiting. A glow of Guiding Light was drawn across the dense forest. The white Guiding Light of the Starhusk in the sky didn’t penetrate the thicket of trees. The source of this radiance was an ephemerally beautiful young girl with her cream-colored hair tied up in a black scarf ribbon. As she ran through the forest, she used Guiding Force to enhance her physical capabilities, making her stand out in the dark. A flock of priestesses pursued her, like moths drawn to a flame. They were all Executioners, most of them in indigo robes, an indication they’d proven their skills as conjurers. These women, all of whom had answered Teach’s call, used the information from their scriptures’ communication conjurings to attack this wanted criminal. It was a high-speed chase, many against one, and all of the Executioners were proficient enough not to be slowed by the snow. Yet this group of hardened conjurers still struggled against their lone opponent. “Dammit, how can she be this strong?!” A crest conjuring flashed and repelled their scripture conjurings. Her strength was far too overwhelming. It felt as though they were up against something inhuman. Those movements were simply on another level. How was she able to produce such intense Guiding Enhancement? Taken aback by her unexpected strength, the priestesses nevertheless persisted and made their way out of the woods. One of them used Guiding Force with the scripture in her left hand to activate a conjuring. Guiding Force: Connect—Scripture, 1:4—Invoke [The Lord’s will is relayed through all of heaven and earth, reigning far and wide.] This communication conjuring was one of the many scripture conjurings the priestesses commanded. Through it, they could converse in detail with comrades over long distances. Once they had a better vantage point, they would engage their target. The priestesses were occupied with silently communicating via their scripture conjurings when something changed. Flarette suddenly changed directions. “What?!” With a quick leap, Flarette kicked off a nearby tree trunk to launch herself into the air. The tree shook, dropping snow from its branches. The abrupt, near about-face gave the priestesses chasing her pause. It was only a momentary delay, but it still proved fatal. Flarette’s fist struck immediately. “Gah?!” With a scream, a priestess went down. That made more than ten dispatched. Despite their overwhelming numerical advantage, the difference in their strength was clear. “Here she comes!” one cried. An instant later, Flarette accelerated. Her body glowed with faint blue Guiding Light, and her speed exceeded anything they could have predicted. She used the trunks of trees to bounce around unpredictably, striking and then jumping away repeatedly. Soon, her fist brought down the last priestess. “Phew.” Having turned the tables on her would-be attackers, Flarette let out a long breath. Somehow, her stamina was such that she wasn’t even winded. She was currently acting alone. After defeating the knights and learning of Maya’s location, Menou and Abbie had split up. One would head for Maya’s destination, the entrance to the City of Ruins, while the other aimed to catch up to Maya and Sahara. Menou had been set upon by Executioners while pursuing Maya and Sahara. She’d expected that, though, and had already defeated most of them. “Now, then… I have to find them right away.” Flipping back her chestnut-colored ponytail, she broke into a run again, her breathing still perfectly steady. A railroad track ran beyond the grove. Maya and Sahara were likely at the station ahead. There was just one problem. Maya slowed to a stop in a field of snow that gleamed under the moonlight. The enemy she’d been expecting was waiting for her. It was apparent all along that the Executioners sent after her with precise knowledge of her location had been meant to drive her to a specific spot. Menou had known this, yet hadn’t been able to avoid it. Not if she wanted to reach Sahara and Maya quickly. Now she glared at the woman waiting for her. “…I take it you were the one who riled up those Executioners.” “That’s right.” Michele, the strongest Executioner, nodded curtly. “Those fools gathered to try and oppose me, so I leaked information about your whereabouts to them. That way, I could expend your energy and get rid of the rebel faction in one fell swoop. No one will sympathize with morons who decided to act without permission and got beaten for it. This will reduce the number of those who dare rebel against me.” “I certainly pity those poor youngsters who were used by an old bag.” “Ridiculous. What better use could there be for incompetent fools who don’t know their place?” Michele raised her broadsword. The snow whipped around her, glittering from the Guiding Light she produced. Although lacking her scripture meant she was short a powerful weapon, she was still a far more deadly foe than all of the priestesses. “Enough talk, Flarette. I’ll make sure this is your last stop.” The strongest Elder—the Magician. Michele, who’d sworn loyalty to Hakua, narrowed one eye as she spoke. A priestess with a scar on her cheek walked through a freight train station. The place was used primarily to store materials extracted from the City of Ruins and the goods that adventurers aiming to explore that place would need. Wooden storage containers lined the entire area, with small paths between the stacks of packages. Containers that had come in on the latest train were being lifted to their appointed place by people wearing exoskeleton-like Guiding Enhancement armor. Teach had gathered the Executioners who supported her cause to form an independent squadron. They’d managed to get ahead of Michele and track down Flarette first. The Primary Color life-form that was traveling with her was nowhere to be seen; they must have split up. Flarette was on her own. Teach saw her comrades in arms fighting in the distance. They were too far away to be seen without a telescope normally, but Teach watched them with perfect clarity. It was because she was in her prime. Teach didn’t question her own condition for a moment. However, that alone hadn’t been enough. The green-haired priestess with glasses who’d supplied Teach’s squadron with Menou’s location wasn’t participating in the attack. She’d cut off contact. “I knew it… She’s a spy…” The priestess, whose name was Hooseyard, had been placed under Michele’s direct supervision but had claimed to take issue with her leadership. It certainly seemed like Michele gave Hooseyard a hard time on a regular basis, and she didn’t seem to be lying when she complained about not wanting to be an Inquisitor. Most of all, the information Hooseyard had obtained by dropping her spirit into the earthen vein and surveying the area with ceremonial conjurings was extremely accurate. Michele must have leaked information to Teach intentionally so that her group would wear down Flarette, enabling Michele to swoop in and finish them all off herself. “Don’t make me laugh…” Teach was fine with letting Michele think she was in control. Flarette wasn’t Teach’s only enemy. She would play along with Michele’s plan for now and sacrifice the comrades she’d gathered, pretending to fall to Flarette as Michele expected. Then Michele and Flarette could fight. Then Teach would finish off whoever survived. “Executioners have always been independent… Did you think we’d let you have your way?” While Michele and Flarette dueled, Teach would accomplish another goal. The governor of the Fourth would make a fine target for the Executioners. For reasons she didn’t understand, Teach could detect Sahara’s location like some kind of sixth sense. The Concept of Original Sin slowly consuming Teach was drawn to Maya, who was in the same place, but she didn’t realize that. “Hey, you. This area’s for authorized personnel only.” As Teach strode deeper into the storage yard without permission, several men approached to stop her. They looked like rough-and-tumble has-been adventurers who’d probably been hired for security. Or perhaps they were current adventurers who traded in contraband. The men glanced cautiously at the priestess robes that showed beneath Teach’s cloak. “Faust or not, you can’t just go poking your nose wherever you w—ah?” Teach promptly drew her rapier and thrust it into the man’s heart. The man looked at the blade piercing his chest with an expression of disbelief. She pulled the rapier free, and the man slumped to the ground. Teach narrowed her eyes. Kill anyone who interferes. That was the way of the Executioner. Guiding Force: Connect—Rapier, Crest—Invoke [Thrust: Expansion] The crest conjuring opened a hole in another man’s forehead. In the unnatural silence that followed, the victim crumpled to the floor. “Get out of my way…or else you die.” That’s when the screams began. Sahara heard the shriek when she stepped from the shipping container. “Hmm?” She cocked her head. At first, she thought someone must have discovered some illegal items instead of her and Maya. However, the tone didn’t seem right for that. There was a slight trembling in the ground. She heard exclamations like “Why?!” and “Call for backup—” and “No, just run!” All of which were cut off abruptly. As the confusion of increasingly hectic noise surrounded her, she felt the rumbling beneath her feet getting closer. The source of the intermittent tremors was coming right for her. She turned to face the cause, wondering what in the world it might be. Scripture, 3:1—Invoke [And the oncoming enemy did hear the tolling of the bell.] A Guiding Light bell rang, and the first car of the freight train Sahara and Maya had ridden was blown away. The scripture conjuring had come with no prior warning. Sahara was stunned. The attack smashed the engine car on the Guiding train that would have been her first method of escape. As the bell of Guiding Light faded away, a priestess appeared in its place. Her robes were indigo. Judging by the color of the stripes on her chest, she had to be exceptionally powerful, enough to rival a pastor. Clearly, someone had found Sahara and Maya, pinpointing their exact location. “Sahara… Alone, are you? No… The other one, the taboo, Pandæmonium’s pinky finger, must be here, too…” The priestess threw her cloak aside. Sahara recognized her scarred face. “…Teach?” She was the head instructional priestess at Sahara’s old monastery. However, the woman hardly looked as Sahara remembered. Eyes and ear canals dotted her bare arms, and unnatural bulges and bumps covered her back. The robe had just barely concealed them. Without it, her abnormal transformation was obvious. “What’s this? A new look? Well, far be it for me to criticize someone else’s taste.” “Ah. So you’re going to defend Flarette, too, are you?” She responded as if she hadn’t really heard Sahara. Clearly, a Concept of Original Sin was taking over her spirit. She was no longer in her right mind. Sahara answered her cautiously. “What do you mean? I’ve never once tried to defend Menou. If selling her out will save my skin, I’d be happy to tell you whatever you want to know.” Having been summoned to the north by Maya, Sahara didn’t actually know Menou’s current whereabouts, but it didn’t seem like Teach would believe that. “…Governor of the Fourth, Sahara. You and Flarette were in the same class back at the monastery, weren’t you?” “Sure. We were there together for less than a year, though.” Sahara and the other prospective Executioners in her year were released at Menou’s request. Only Momo and a few other rare exceptions had stayed behind. Sahara had resigned herself to her lack of talent and became a nun in a rural area to train as a normal priestess. Apparently, this tenuous past connection seemed suspicious to Teach. “And you’ve been conspiring with her since?” “Not at all. Could you stop reading into things so deeply?” Sahara frowned. As far as she was concerned, this misunderstanding was highly inconvenient and borderline insulting. “I’ve never gotten along with Menou. Don’t try to make up some stupid bond between us.” “When Flarette left the monastery, she burned all of the records…but one thing remains clear,” Teach went on, ignoring Sahara. The eyes all over her body narrowed to angry slits. “From what I gathered, right around when you started doing poorly in training, Flarette began getting top marks. Did you two cut some kind of deal?” “Uh…nope, not even close…” Sahara had displayed early promise only to fizzle out quickly. That was all. Meanwhile, Menou had rapidly improved thanks to her one-on-one training with Flare. Sahara would’ve preferred not to revisit depressing moments. “No response, eh? So the information Flarette tried to cover up when she burned the documents at Flare’s monastery after destroying the holy land…must have been your connection to her.” “We had no deal, we have no connection, and I’m not the one Menou was trying to hide, okay?” Menou had destroyed those records to conceal her relationship with Momo. She’d erased any trace of their history so Hakua wouldn’t realize that she’d entrusted Akari to Momo. While Sahara was aware that Menou’s goal had been to ensure Momo’s safe return to the Faust, what she didn’t know was that Menou had deliberately left behind traces of the records of her history with Sahara to draw attention from Momo. “I see now. While Flarette worked as an Executioner, you pretended to be an ordinary nun…sharpening your fangs in the eastern Wild Frontier, laying the foundations, then deserting to reunite with Menou as soon as your preparations were complete.” Teach was obviously piecing together an imagined conspiracy theory in her mind. Sahara wished she’d realized that not everything in life was necessarily that grandiose. Her life had always been guided by coincidences, emotions, and just generally going with the flow. Thanks to that, she felt like she’d wound up in a whirlpool from which there was no escape. “Listen, Teach. I dunno if there’s any getting through to you at this point, but lemme ask you this… How many people have you eaten? You’ve obviously gotten involved with a Concept of Original Sin.” “You dare insult me? Original Sin? No proud Executioner would meddle in the taboo!” Teach’s temper suddenly flared. While Sahara was taken aback by the overreaction, it also made one thing clear. Teach didn’t even realize that her body had been transformed into that of a demon by a Concept of Original Sin. She had lived her life as an Executioner who hunted taboos, survived countless battles, and was chosen to train new Executioners at the monastery. Now that pride was twisted up with her altered spirit. The bulges on her back bubbled. Giant arms that were easily the length of an adult man’s burst from her skin, ripping through her priestess robes. There were three on each side—six in total. Each one looked like an entire person had been mashed into the shape of a limb with the crudeness of a child playing with clay, yet they all moved just fine. “Sahara, what’s going… Huh?!” The front car of the train they were hiding on had been blasted off, so naturally, Maya noticed something was amiss. She peeked out nervously from the container door Sahara had opened, then gasped when she saw Teach. Fear showed plain on her face, although whether it was because an enemy had found them or because of Teach’s grotesque appearance was unclear. Sahara gasped, too, though for a different reason. The three left arms sprouting from Teach’s back had scriptures embedded in their palms. “No way…” A scripture was a priestess’s strongest weapon. Including Teach’s own, that made four at her disposal. Given the complexity of a scripture conjuring, it didn’t seem possible that she could use them on her own. However, Sahara’s worst premonitions always turned out to be true. “Governor of the Fourth, and Pandæmonium’s pinky finger. I’ll take you two out before I deal with Flarette and Michele.” Guiding Force: Connect—Scripture, 8:12— Guiding Force: Connect—Scripture, 8:12— Guiding Force: Connect—Scripture, 8:12— The three embedded scriptures all emitted Guiding Light at once. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.” Sahara’s body reacted automatically, even though part of her had already given up hope in the face of this threat. The light of Guiding Enhancement surrounded her body as she scooped Maya into her arms and jumped into the air, landing behind the shipping container on the freight train and out of Teach’s line of sight. Invoke [Kneel before the gate, for it is the path to the Lord.] Invoke [Kneel before the gate, for it is the path to the Lord.] Invoke [Kneel before the gate, for it is the path to the Lord.] Three scripture conjurings took shape at the same time. Gates appeared at three equidistant points. They each gave off a powerful magnet-like pull, dragging the rear car away from where Sahara hid. The scripture conjurings quickly tore the train car to pieces, scattering them across the piles of stacked storage containers. Sahara would never be able to defend against such a powerful attack. She couldn’t help shuddering at the attack that could easily have ripped her body apart. “The world needs Executioners… We’ve always protected the peace… No sacrifice is too great if it will preserve our existence. I will destroy you both, kill Flarette…kill Michele, too…and then, once I’ve done all that, surely… Executioners… My worth will be… I’ll…” Peering at Teach, Sahara saw the scripture-embedded arms writhing. That’s when she realized what the lumps at the base of each horrific arm must be. They probably contained harvested brains. The Concept of Original Sin had taken over human brains, wiping away all thoughts and personality and turning them into living Guiding circuits for the sole purpose of operating the arms and constructing conjurings. Based on their weapons and scriptures, they had originally been priestesses. Teach used her own hand to stroke the scar on her cheek as her eyes, long since devoid of all sanity, locked onto Sahara. “I’ll never let her laugh at me again! Ever!!” Sahara steeled herself. She didn’t see any way of escaping this monstrously transformed Teach. Perhaps she could get away if she were alone, but for some reason, she couldn’t bring herself to abandon Maya. Guiding Force: Connect—Prosthetic Arm, Inner Seal Conjuration—Activate [Skill: Silver Gauntlet] She transformed her Guiding prosthetic right arm into a weapon. Her opponent had a scripture. It would be foolish to try fighting from a distance. If Sahara could just get close enough, Teach wouldn’t be able to use wide-range scripture conjurings against her. “Maya. Do you see that freight train over there? The one that’s preparing to depart to run from this disaster? Hop on, and it’ll take you to the entrance to the City of Ruins.” Maya’s small body was trembling in Sahara’s arms. The battle had left her terrified. Sahara winced. This wasn’t good. She was trying to get Maya to escape to the freight train and go to the City of Ruins on her own, but the child was petrified. “Listen, about yesterday… The truth is, I have no idea how you feel. I don’t get why you’d run off on your own to try to do this without Menou, either.” As she tried to figure out what to do, Sahara began rambling about the argument from the previous day. “I mean, I don’t have anywhere to call home, and I’ve never been close enough to someone to fear losing them. I’ve never trusted anyone from the bottom of my heart, either, so I’ve never really been betrayed.” Sahara didn’t harbor any strong feelings for her parents, whom she’d lost at a young age. She hadn’t felt at home in the Faust, either. When she’d lived in the monastery, she only thought about fighting and beating the other kids. Even when she fought on the front lines of the eastern Wild Frontier as a nun, she never felt like there was someone she wanted to protect. There was only one person she’d ever admired. Flare. Sahara wanted to learn to be that cool and aloof, but instead, Flare chose Menou as her star pupil. Sahara hadn’t been chosen. Her ideal was forever beyond her reach. Her overwhelming inferiority complex made her so miserable that she ended up fighting Menou. Sahara’s life was full of compromise and jealousy, and she was incapable of lying to herself, so she’d fallen into corruption easily. “I’m no good at trying to understand or sympathize with other people. I only know how to live for myself. So I’m sure I’ll never end up needing you, not once in my whole life.” “S-so what? You’re just my stupid servant, Sahara…” Maya’s eyes filled with tears at what must have seemed like random cruelty. But the little girl’s distress didn’t particularly wound Sahara. In fact, she found it far more annoying than anything else. “But you know…” Sahara only looked out for herself and couldn’t comfort others with her nonexistent sympathy. Even now she had no idea if her words would help Maya, but she smiled at the girl awkwardly. “…I’m sure Menou can make you feel needed, even if I can’t.” “What?” Sahara didn’t understand how, but Menou would probably figure it out. Hearing Sahara invoke Menou in her effort to comfort her, Maya stared with her mouth agape. “…Are you serious?” At first, Maya couldn’t believe it, but then her body began to shake with barely suppressed laughter. Despite the looming danger, her slim shoulders shook at the out-of-place hilarity. “Ah-ha…ha-ha! M-Menou can take care of it, huh? Sahara, you are just so, so… Ha-ha-ha-ha!” Maya couldn’t stop laughing at Sahara’s habitual tendency to shove responsibility onto others. It was so unbelievably funny that Maya laughed harder than she could remember laughing at anything before, even a thousand years ago. A new memory settled in her stomach, and she wiped away tears of laughter from her eyes. Sahara, who thought she was giving a serious speech, pursed her lips. “…Was what I said really that funny?” “It really, really was.” Maya’s grin was full of impish charm. “But…I suppose you have a point. I’ll have to find out if your words are true. So you’ll have to work just a little bit harder for me, all right? If you can manage this last push, I’ll reward you.” “Ugh… That’s not really what I meant. It’s not my way to take responsibility for things, you know… Can’t we resolve this in a way that doesn’t require me to do anything?” “No, we can’t. Stop complaining!” While scolding Sahara, Maya stealthily touched the lizard-like ring on her finger. The jet-black creature slithered back into Maya’s shadow. Nothing was wrong with an advance reward for a servant who didn’t seem to need a curse anymore. Sahara patted Maya’s head with her flesh-and-blood left hand, failing to notice that the ring had disappeared from her right one. “All right, I’ll go take care of things. When I get back, you better be prepared to provide for me.” “Are you sure about this?” “Mm-hmm, don’t worry. I’m not gonna lose.” Strangely enough, the words rolled off Sahara’s tongue even though she didn’t believe them. When Maya nodded and looked ahead tensely, Sahara got the feeling that she might actually pull this off, just like Menou would. “So you better do your best, too.”