Light and dark Sanctus: “O King, can your infinite light conquer the abyss?”
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“…”
“That’s…impossible?”
Two swords appeared in Salinger’s hands.
And Francoise, sliced through by the blades of light and darkness, collapsed.
“It’s too early for your encore,” Salinger said.
“Ha-ha…”
With a cracking noise, her crystal body began to fissure and fall away. As the pieces fell to the ground, they turned into light. Watching this process transpire, the witch looked oddly content.
“I thought…a weak astral mage like me…could still rise to the stage…with this power…”
“…”
“I sympathize with you, Salinger. You had to meet me… You made contact with a world you never should have.”
Then she disappeared into light. The thousands of tiny pieces of her glowed and disappeared.
“Guh…”
The Queen’s Space fell silent.
Now alone, Salinger staggered and almost fell.
“The nerve of her to disappear… She’s making more work for me to the very end…”
His vision grew hazy.
He dragged along his right leg, immobile from blood loss, and limped toward the wall of the great hall.
There lay the queen.
She twitched and gasped for breath, as though it were a forgotten afterthought.
The true culprit had disappeared, so the queen was now the only one who could give testimony. But the witch had said she would never wake…
“Look, Queen, I need you to wake up, no matter what it takes.”
Then again, he had no way of waking her.
He would at least move her from the side to the center of the hall so her vassals could find her. He approached her, reaching to do just that.
But in that moment, he had overlooked something.
When Francoise disappeared, so, too, had her violet flames, which had enveloped the Queen’s Space.
Creak.
The door to the Queen’s Space flew open, and someone ran into the room.
“Who’s there?!”
His voice prickled at his throat.
Something faint, something too weak to be called a “premonition,” drove him to turn around.
In front of him, he saw a princess in a beautiful ball gown.
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“……Salinger.”
“Mira…?”
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She was panting in a way he had never seen her do before.
And her face looked sorrowful in a way he had never seen before, either.
The princess’s eyes opened wide.
She looked at the bloody queen lying on the ground.
Then she turned to him.
“…”
She bit her lip right after.
Her lip began to tremble more and more, spreading to the rest of her face until the tremor pulled her shoulders taut.
She was trying to say something.
But as she struggled not to cry, she swallowed her words.
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She clasped her hands together, but they went lax and fell apart again.
After seeing all of Mira…
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…Salinger realized this performance was coming to a close.
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“Salingeeer!”
She began to cry. He couldn’t determine whether the tears trailing down her cheeks were from rage, sadness, or pain.
“…”
With the red-faced, shouting princess before him…
…Salinger simply stood there in silence.
……I thought she was just a machine.
……But she can show emotion. She can cry.
And there was her ball gown.
In her resplendent outfit, Princess Mira was beautiful even as she wept. Though he knew it wasn’t appropriate for the situation, he could not help but think she was beautiful.
“You…… Did you attack the queen?!”
That was likely how it looked.
The witch had disappeared. In the Queen’s Space, only he and the unconscious queen remained. In that case, she would naturally assume he had attacked her.
Even if…
…in her heart, she feels something else…
Could she allow her personal feelings to interfere in the matter?
She had to judge the situation based on what she saw. She was still a princess, after all.
“Answer me!”
“…”
It was possible Salinger could have explained.
Perhaps she had wanted him to. Say it isn’t true. Give me an explanation, her swollen eyes begged him. However…
Could he do that?
Salinger’s hesitation stopped him from telling her.
……If I tell her “It’s not me,” “Let me go…”
……Could I really let that weak side of myself show?
Inconvenient as it was, he had an aesthetic vision. He would rather be executed on the spot than let her see him kneel and beg for his life.
Even if the performance was over.