During the election campaign, I’d been focused on playing Mimimi as a top-tier character against Hinami, so perhaps I hadn’t been able to think deeply about Hinami’s motives. As I was investigating strategies that could beat the big bad, I’d never tried to peek into Hinami’s heart or wonder what she’d been thinking as she’d built up such a perfect strategy.
On the other hand, in Pureblood Hybrid and Ice Cream, as Alucia was preparing for the tournament, doubts always followed her behind her accumulated efforts. Her struggles and questioning were depicted with incredible persistence.
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It was as if the writer of this world was showing Aoi Hinami’s heart, supplementing the parts she hadn’t been able to depict from my point of view in this story from an omniscient point of view.
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Eventually, the story reached the climax: the magical-crafting competition.
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“The victor is—Alucia!”
The Libra-and-Nana team had also shocked the judges with all the ideas in the item they’d crafted, but Alucia dominated the room with an item of minute planning and absolute perfection. She’d won so decisively that anyone would recognize it. There was no way that some makeshift, outlandish scheme would beat her perfectly polished competitive style.
With Alucia’s victory, the first half of Pureblood Hybrid’s second part came to an end, and eventually, Nana took her loss as a chance to change direction as she began to have doubts about herself.
She had lost in an area she took pride in to her friend, who was no specialist in that area.
She had devoted everything to magical crafting, which was all she had, and a royal girl blessed with everything had shoved her loss in her face.
Aside from her excellence in magical crafting, Nana was just a normal girl you’d find anywhere, so there was no way she could remain as she had been.
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Eventually, Nana started skipping out on training in magical crafting, even though she’d never missed a single day before. Finally, she completely abandoned all the efforts she’d continued to invest for over ten years.
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So the story went, and though it wasn’t completely identical to what I had experienced, the parallels were there.
It was familiar and yet unfamiliar, and I devoured it.
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Alucia, who had caused Nana’s breakdown, watched her friend lose what mattered to her and felt responsible.
“This is…my fault, isn’t it?” Things are messed up because of what I did, she thought.
It wasn’t like she was particularly fixated on this magical-crafting tournament, after all.
Magical-crafting classes were actually the first time Alucia had started practicing the art, in fact. Losing this competition wouldn’t have damaged anything important to her, and neither did she have any pride to maintain.
Even if she’d landed second place, getting runner-up in her first competition would be more than enough. With her opponent being her good friend Nana, who had devoted herself to magical crafting for ten years, the story would be told as a particularly dramatic one.
She hadn’t necessarily needed to win.
She wondered if she should have held back somewhere.
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One time, Libra asked Alucia why she was so fixated on victory, and she realized something.
“Wouldn’t you understand, Libra?”
“Me?”
“There are thirty-two races in the world, and they all have gods they believe in, right?”
“Yeah…”
“But you know. Being bloodless, I have no god to believe in.”
“Ah…” I’m the same—so Libra thought.
“You’re the Pureblood Hybrid. Though you’re different from me, you don’t belong to any race, so you understand, right? I’m empty—with nothing to believe in.”
That was one of the few times Alucia had expressed her honest feelings.
“So then I have no choice but to win. To win and have everyone acknowledge me,” she said imploringly, as if seeking one of the few of her kind in the world.
But—
“I…” Libra was struggling to answer.
And his answer was not the one Alucia had hoped for.
“I don’t possess a drop of pure blood, so it’s difficult for me to believe in one thing. But…” He faced the future, like the sun. “I feel like I can believe in everything, bit by bit. The god of the sun, the god of the moon, the gods of the earth and sea—all of them!”
Alucia’s expression twisted.
Libra’s smile was pure, with no doubts at all toward the world. To her, it was a form of hope—but also a deadly poison.
“…I see.” Alucia smiled sadly. “So you’re not like me at all.”
“What do you mean…?”
The poison turned into despair inside her, giving rise to words of isolation. “Since I’m…the opposite of you. —I’m bloodless,” she spat, her eyes tinged with distrust toward the world.
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“I know—I can only doubt everything.”
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The remark was cold, but it captured reality.
“You know, I thought that I had to win at everything.” She felt compelled to speak, as finally, her words began to contain something like determination. “But look. Maybe someone who I beat had a really valuable sense of aesthetics, or the desire to help someone, or a passion for the art, right? Maybe that was what they were fighting for.”
She said with envy:
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“I don’t have anything like that.”
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She smiled in resignation—and then a tiny tear dripped down her cheek.
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“I’m just filthy and empty.”
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The empty vessel’s will to make the world beautiful had broken.
The doll, cold as ice, had ruined a precious, harmonious soul.
The machine with no desires had extinguished someone’s real passion.
And all she had gained in return was—an empty victory.
She wondered, Does an empty person like me really deserve to win?
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Eventually, Alucia told Libra of her decision in no uncertain terms:
“Listen. In the next tournament, I think I’m going to lose.”
“What…? Why?” He was surprised to hear that.
“Victory doesn’t befit someone who fights to win for winning’s sake. Just being able to win doesn’t mean you deserve the victory.” With simple words, Alucia rejected all she’d been. “Until I can understand my own form, I don’t need any empty victories.” Her determination was distorted, but it was firm.
“So, Libra, I have a request.” She took his hand imploringly. Her hands were not shaking, but they were very cold. “Even if I’ve lost, even if I stop being brilliant and special…”
Her eyes, wavering like the surface of a lake blown by the wind, were filled with unsteady light.
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“…will you still need me when I’ve lost?”
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A few days later, Alucia was participating in a knockout competition in dueling class.
It was a practical class, held in a tournament format, where students would wear special protective attire and battle using their magic powers until the protection wore down to a certain point.
Alucia easily beat her classmate in the first round, and in the second round, she was up against Nana.
Alucia was planning to lose this fight on purpose.
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“L-let’s have a good match!”
“Yeah, let’s do it, Nana.”
The two of them faced each other in the arena. Alucia’s eyes were filled with real force, focused on some distant point. Meanwhile, Nana was trying to act like this was the same as always, but she just couldn’t settle her nerves. Even before the battle started, Nana seemed far less intense.
Alucia was the favorite to win this competition, and Nana shrank before her. Alucia had even beaten her at her own specialty, and Nana was terrible at dueling to begin with. In fact, it was basically a fluke that she’d managed to win the first round.
But Nana didn’t think about giving up.
In fact, burning flames had lit within her. She wanted to gamble on this moment to get back at Alucia.
It was clear Alucia was much stronger.
If Nana had any chance at all, it would be with a quick, unexpected move.
Before it turned into a protracted fight, she would take Alucia by surprise and disable her with one attack. That was her only goal.
“Begin!” the teacher referee called, and Nana raced out, her ponytail drawing an arc after her. Her steps were clumsy, and she didn’t know her stance well. Her attempt—a ploy to get close to Alucia—was yawn-worthy to the other girl. She could avoid it on reflex.
But Alucia was trying to lose deliberately, so this was a good opportunity for her.
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She threw everything into a surprise attack I wasn’t ready for, and she turned the tables on me.
She took a high-risk gamble on one hit, and before I knew it, it was all over.
Nana was so worked up trying to get back at me for the crafting tournament, she won on spirit!
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With that story, it would make sense to the audience how a much stronger opponent had been overcome. After considering what she could do to make her loss a reality, she had to use this.
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—And so.
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“?!”
Alucia made a dramatic show to the audience of gasping like she’d been surprised. She exaggeratedly followed Nana’s feint and clearly exposed herself in a big way. She moved so naturally that anyone would think she’d fallen for Nana’s trick.
A ball of light fired from Nana’s staff. The light ball was unpracticed and unshapely, far from the clean spheres that an advanced caster would throw. But despite that, it was very large and summoned with such spirit that it would end the match in one shot unless Alucia defended herself.
The ball of light came closer and closer to Alucia’s face.
Alucia was thinking she would turn around and deliberately take the hit.