Chapter 5

It was like something out of a waking dream. The town was covered in snow. This place of many residents was dyed in white. And amid this pure-white snowscape, a young Menou stood stock-still. The white scenery was spreading out from the snow-white girl in front of Menou’s eyes. She looked to be somewhere in her late teens. The girl’s hair was black, as were her eyes. Her skin had a healthy tan. Her uniform consisted of a light-blue shirt and a navy vest. She wasn’t dressed in white by any means—in fact, it was difficult to find any white on her clothes at all. But for some reason, the girl only registered in Menou’s eyes as pure white. “Aa…aaaah… I’m so sorry…!” The mysteriously white figure desperately dusted off the snow that was piling up on Menou. She’d created the snow herself, yet for some reason, the girl brushed the snow off Menou as if it was a horribly sinful thing. The town, buildings and people alike, had already turned white and lost their shape, scattering like fresh snow. Menou was the only survivor. And soon even her own name would be blotted out and become unrecognizable. She didn’t feel any fear. Menou’s spirit had been reduced to white, too. The boundary between herself and the rest of the world was hazy. She could barely tell the difference between herself and someone else. All that remained was her name. All that made Menou herself was the name Menou, which was the only thing that hadn’t turned white yet. “Why did this…? No…I wasn’t… This isn’t… Ah, but…someone… I… What have I…?” As she frantically brushed the snow off Menou, the pure-white girl kept muttering to herself. Her murmured words were unstable as she struggled to string them together. Watching the girl and her air of tragedy, Menou began to feel sad herself. With her sense of self as faint as it was, she was easily affected by another’s sorrow. If someone else cried, Menou couldn’t help but mirror that. As Menou’s very self began to melt into the whiteness around her, the girl’s feeling became her feelings, too. Even the snow around her seemed to reflect the girl’s distress. Their surroundings had all become part of the girl’s whiteness. At some point, the pure-white girl gave up on brushing the snow off Menou and stood clutching her head. “White… The world…white… I am…white… No, that’s not… I only wanted…back to Japan… Ah, I—” “Just die.” A dagger sank into the girl’s head. It was so sudden that it was almost nonsensical. Even standing right in front of the scene, Menou had no idea what had just happened. It was almost as if the dagger had suddenly sprouted from the pure-white girl’s head. A second later, she crumpled to the ground. Why did this happen…? As Menou looked around in confusion, the scenery flickered. A portion of the landscape warped like a heat haze. Then a tall woman with dark-red hair emerged from the distortion. As Menou stared at her, a ripple seemed to run through her vision. The color of the tall priestess clashed with Menou’s blanched-white spirit. Even here in this pure-white town, where Menou had lost the sense of boundaries between herself and others, this red-haired priestess still clearly stood out as a different person. “…Who are you?” “You can’t tell from my clothes? I’m a priestess—pure, proper, and powerful.” Her self-introduction had an undercurrent of irony, as if she didn’t entirely believe it herself. But now that she mentioned it, it made sense. The woman was wearing indigo priestess robes, Menou realized. The deep red of her hair left such a strong impression that Menou hadn’t even noticed her indigo clothes. “White, huh? This certainly is a Blanch effect, but…it’s strange. If this were the second coming of Ivory, surely there wouldn’t be any survivors. Which means…” The woman trailed off and placed her palm on Menou’s head. At the point of contact, something flowed into Menou. “A connection between our Guiding Forces doesn’t hurt you… I see. Hrmm. You’re far too high-quality to be a mere survivor.” Removing her hand from Menou, the priestess glanced around. The entirety of the town had turned white, with no more visible outlines or boundaries left. On top of the piled-up snow lay the pure-white girl who had been stabbed. Following the priestess’s gaze, Menou noticed the girl’s chest was moving up and down. Shockingly, she must have still been breathing. Her body began to emit a white light. Guiding Force: Connect—Improper Attachment, Pure Concept? White?—Invoke [Where…is this…? Who…am I…?] The white Guiding Light burst forth in all directions. The whiteness that had once been the town began to gather at a single point. All that was in view was collecting around the dead girl. Except for Menou, everything that had made up the town turned to white and was towering overhead. “Ha. What a failure—you can’t even die properly, it seems.” The priestess clearly didn’t fear the colossal mass that contained all that had once been the town. Laughing loudly and mockingly, she held a dagger that looked puny before the giant. Ah… Menou felt a deep sense of loneliness settle into her heart. She was supposed to be somewhere in that whiteness, too. She should have been bleached, drained, and made pure white along with everything else. Somehow, knowing that she had failed to turn into the absence of color, left out of the rest of the group, made her a little lonely. How sad… That was the moment that her heart truly grieved. Then a pillar of light shot upward. The Guiding Light, formed out of enormous energy, glowed as if to push away the white scenery. The conjuring unfolded all around, creating a church out of the light. The clear sound of a bell rang out, pure-white walls took form, and an untouchable, pristine barrier came into being, complete with a set of heavy gates. The result was a pseudo-holy ground. It bound the white giant within its walls, and the tolling bell of pure power slowly broke it down with each ring. But this scene wasn’t created by the priestess. An old woman with a cane had unhurriedly walked up beside her. “Establishing holy ground with a pseudo-church, eh? I guess I should expect no less from the woman who single-handedly created the defense barrier of Garm, old lady Orwell. It’s a flashy move, I’ll give you that.” “Heh. I see your fondness for secrecy hasn’t changed a bit.” “Don’t lump me in with you, old timer. We have very different roles.” The elderly woman was holding the cane with both hands as she walked. Instead of the indigo robes of a priestess, she wore the sacred and dignified clothing of a bishop. “And I don’t think there’s any need for you to show up for the execution of an Otherworlder.” “My, but this incident occurred in my very own nation. It’s rare for an Otherworlder to cause harm on such a large scale, so I believe a public official ought to get involved.” The woman called Orwell turned her gaze toward Menou. There was an unreadable emotion glistening in the old woman’s eyes. “And who is this girl?” “A survivor.” The priestess seemed to have noticed Orwell’s emotional response; she made a casual proposal. “Will you take her in for me? Surely the noble task of looking after an orphan should fall to someone as pure as yourself, not someone whose job is as dirty as mine.” “…Oh my. Personally, I think you’d be better suited to caring for her. You recently became a Master, no? You ought to try your hand at more difficult jobs, not just those that come naturally to you. I’m sure that is what our Lord wishes for you as well.” With that, the old woman simply walked away. “Ha! That old bag’s learned a thing or two in that long life of hers. I never could pull one over on her.” The woman laughed heartily, then looked down at Menou. “So what do you want to do?” This was a most unexpected question. The only feeling that arose even slightly in Menou was confusion, and it must have shown on her face, because the woman went on after a moment. “You’ve got serious conjuring potential, so I thought pushing you off on her might work, but she hoisted you back on me instead. I don’t really care what your future holds from here on out, but what do you want to do? If you’ve got any hopes, let’s hear ’em.” “Nothing.” Menou didn’t have any particular dreams or desires. Her mind, soul, and memories had all been dyed white, leaving behind nothing but her name. She retained enough knowledge to keep a hold on the name, but since her past and everything else had been wiped clean, no spontaneous aspirations came to mind. “Nothing at all.” The priestess looked down at Menou, unimpressed by her apathetic outlook on her own future. “Well, since it’s on the way, I’ll babysit you till we reach the holy land. If you make it there alive, you can do whatever you want.” The priestess put a hand on Menou’s head, still disinterested. It was probably just that Menou happened to be the right height for the woman to rest her hand on. She didn’t pat Menou’s head, nor bother to attempt anything as annoying as holding hands. But strangely, there was nothing unpleasant about it. To Menou, whose sense of boundary had grown vague except between herself and this woman, there was something reassuringly certain about the touch of her hand.