On that desolate field was one warrior who clearly stood out from the rest: a proud swordswoman on horseback, her face hidden by an iron mask, long hair streaming behind her. She didn’t belong to either army but was a hero without equal who’d come to put an end to the war.
The scenery shifted. A man dressed like a priest, armed with a book and a staff, was fighting a grotesque monster. After that, we saw a thin man in a robe frantically writing down some sort of technique on parchment. These were the Tuners from the distant past, four centuries ago.
“We were happy like that. Our sacrifices saved people. We saved the world. We swore we would fight until our bodies were no more. —But we were too exceptional to be heroes.”
Ice Doll’s voice sounded even colder than usual.
“At the time, most of the members of the Federation Government were aristocrats from a number of specific bloodlines. They stripped our band of undying heroes of our Tuner positions. Or, I should say, the System pulled strings and made them decide to do so.”
“…Why? You were amazing Tuners, weren’t you?”
“Yes, and it was that exact reason. Their logic was that real heroes could fight even without the title of Tuner.”
For a moment, I didn’t understand what she was saying. What benefit was there in intentionally removing them from the Tuners? However, Siesta picked up on the meaning right away.
“The number of Tuners is strictly limited to twelve. To further stabilize the world, they needed heroes—handymen—who’d work for them even without filling one of those twelve positions… Is that what you mean?”
“It was particularly true back then, when we were in the midst of a global crisis so great we didn’t have enough people to deal with it. That worked against us as well. At any rate, the government prioritized having more heroes.”
…So that was why they’d been targeted? Ice Doll and the other nameless allies of justice, who would work for centuries for them for free.
“When we immortal heroes lost our positions as Tuners, the protection we received from the System waned as well. All we had left were our unaging bodies and our mission to fight.”
The scene changed again. The three heroes we’d seen earlier each stood on their own battlefield, saving their own small world and the people who lived there. But those worlds were quickly destroyed by new ones.
The fighting never ended, no matter how many people they saved. The human race harbored the Original Sin, and its members fought one another their entire lives—just as Abel Arsene Schoenberg had told us.
“We kept fighting these endless wars until at last, four centuries later, we were given amnesty.”
I wanted to ask why they hadn’t stopped fighting before then, but I couldn’t. It didn’t feel right to ask something like that to a hero who had seriously kept fighting for four hundred years. So instead, I said, “Who gave you that amnesty?”
“During those four hundred years, the aristocratic blood in the Federation Government had been diluted, while more former Tuners had joined. Although they hadn’t been there for as long as us, many of those Tuners had worked there for several decades or more. They gave us amnesty, and we ended our roles as heroes at last and became government dignitaries.”
There was a self-deprecating tone to Ice Doll’s voice.
“It was only recently that we acquired aging bodies from the Inventor. However, after all this time, nobody remembers the positions we once held. Not even us.”
The imagined landscape vanished, and the great hall reappeared around us.
This was what had happened to people who’d exhausted themselves saving others. Even if they hadn’t become enemies of the world, those tragic heroes had been trapped in an eternal war. This was a future that the allies of justice might find themselves facing someday—the truth of the nameless dolls known as Federal Government officials.
“I will only ask you once.” Ice Doll’s mask turned toward Siesta and me. The reason why she’d stopped attacking and shown us that imaginary landscape must be to ask us this question.
“If you both refuse to board the Ark, you will end up facing the Great Cataclysm without the power of your wills. That cataclysm will continue until this planet is destroyed. It won’t just be you; all the Tuners yet to come will be trapped by that fate. Do you truly think that is the right choice?”
Ice Doll knew the pain of having to stand on a battlefield without being able to make full use of her will. She knew the tragedy of being trapped in a never-ending disaster until she didn’t even know who she was.
How long would they have to keep fighting? How long would they be forced to take the short end of the stick? How long would they be praised as heroes and continue to answer the voices of the people, only to be sacrificed for the sake of the world? As Lot had said, why was it always the heroes, the allies of justice, who had everything precious taken from them?
I’d always thought so, too, somewhere deep down. Why was Siesta always the only one who had things stolen from her? Why was Nagisa the only one who suffered such loss? Why was the detective the only one who was right—and who had to be hurt because she was right? Justice shouldn’t mean sacrifice, and yet…
“So you people were the same.”
The government dignitaries hadn’t been looking down on the Tuners from atop their thrones; all this time, they’d been gazing at their past selves from behind those masks.
“That’s why you were jealous of the old me.” Siesta watched Ice Doll with a sad look on her face.
“You were jealous of the Ace Detective, who could die in the line of duty.”
They wanted to hurry up and die.
Now, they wanted that to happen after they’d fulfilled this last important role: preserving the seeds of the human race.
“…………”
Silence. Ice Doll waited for Siesta’s answer. She wanted to know if Siesta was prepared to throw herself into a never-ending war, even if doing so meant she’d stop being anyone at all. She was asking if she was prepared to live as a false hero now that she no longer held the position of Ace Detective.
Silence. Siesta didn’t answer. It wasn’t because she didn’t know how to reply; I was sure she did. That was why she was standing on this battlefield, trying to stop Ice Doll. Even so, she wasn’t saying anything…because not denying Ice Doll was the one gesture of respect she could show her. Respect for the nameless hero who, for four hundred years, had kept fighting a battle no one would remember.
The palace rocked again. Yggdrasil, probably. Ice Doll, who was standing a few meters in front of us, slowly began to move. “Unless something is done about Nagisa Natsunagi, she may destroy the Ark. Let’s put an end to this.”
Giving up on getting an answer from Siesta, Ice Doll held her swords low, preparing to carry out her last remaining mission. The end of the battle was moments away.
“Siesta,” I called out.
She shook her head. She wasn’t holding up her weapon. In that case… I stepped up so that I could at least stand beside her. Beside the former Ace Detective, who’d resolved to accept everything.
“I lost my position and my name, but this sword alone—”
The next moment, Ice Doll disappeared. I hadn’t meant to blink. She immediately reappeared right in front of me, her great ice sword arcing toward Siesta.
“…………”
The blade stopped.
Siesta’s blue eyes gazed at it, the tip of the ice sword refusing to go any farther.
“That, Ice Doll, is your will.”
Ice Doll herself had stopped her sword. Not to be fooled by her words, the dregs of the System that remained in a corner of the world had picked up on her will. On the fact that she didn’t really think she should kill Siesta here.
“Ice Doll, we won’t stop trying to reach our ideal.”
The icy official thrust her swords into the floor and knelt.
“Not even if we lose our names or forget our titles. Even if there comes a day when we don’t remember what we’re fighting for.”
Taking my hand, Siesta spoke to the hero whose fight had come to an end.
“We’ll run through that battered and bruised light, believing that someone’s sure to remember. That we’ll have a companion to pass it on.”
Yggdrasil had demolished the door to the great hall, and the morning sunlight streamed in through the wreckage. Since the palace stood on a continent of ice, the reflected light was so dazzling it made me want to cover my eyes.
That was probably the pain that was waiting for us up ahead. We’d step out of the comfortable darkness into a light that would test our resolve, becoming nameless heroes. Sacrifices for the world.
It was okay, though. I was sure everything would be all right. After all, we had someone beside us who would remember it. Someone who would hold our hand and run through the blinding light with us.
“The times have changed.”
Ice Doll’s voice followed us as we turned around and began to walk out the door.
“We’ll entrust it to you.”