The drizzle continued. Droplets fell from the clouds like the lingering echo after a funeral, forming a mist that gently covered the earth.
The sun had long since set. A white figure walked beneath a row of streetlights, appearing and disappearing in the patches of light and dark.
It was Kitty the All, his face fixed into an uncharacteristically serious expression.
He was walking along the wall on the outskirts of Lower East Town. As he stopped on a hill, he heard eerie wails beat loudly against his eardrums. A swarm of shadowy figures wandered among countless tents, incessantly crying out in grief.
The Dearth March. Their numbers had steadily grown since first arriving in Park, like black mold growing on the fruit that was the city.
Here, in this corner full of shadowy figures, atop the high ground that offered a view of the area, someone awaited Kitty. A mature Cateyes man, his white hair wet with rain. He looked out over the swarming silhouettes like someone gazing at the flowers in their garden, then exhaled a puff of illusory smoke and spoke without turning to face Kitty.
“Once again, you’ve helped me out, wandering prince.”
Kitty shrugged indifferently, standing next to the man and looking down at the shadowy figures.
“I did very little, truth be told. My dear daughter asked me to withdraw from the fight, barring me from doing much more,” he said, a tinge of sulkiness in his voice.
“That does sound like her,” the man said. He let out a laugh, then casually changed the topic, moving to the main issue at hand. “It appears the Reason called into question finally completed her trials.”
“Yes, the three Divine Performances. All that remains is for her to play the Key…”
“The Key won’t allow her to play it, though. Her soul is not yet mature enough to be engraved with the spell of adventure. And before it is, Deus Ex Machina will attempt to weave her soul into its predetermined harmony.”
Kitty’s crimson eyes glanced over at the man’s face.
“It won’t try to erase her…?”
“That God’s will is to dominate, not to erase. It will always choose to shackle something rather than remove it. Killing the people would make It lose Its purpose as a god, and that girl has already become too much a part of this country for God to erase her. So now, He is creating a preestablished program to dominate Reason and make her a part of this country forever.”
“So will this country’s God destroy the Key…?”
“No, I don’t think that’s likely. Even if the Key were right in front of Him, He would not be able to see it, nor hear it. From His perspective, a Nomad is someone who no longer exists in this world. After all, they should never have existed in the first place.”
“Hmm. By that, I assume you’re referring to the Paradise Shift, which the false gods are unable to interfere with. What kind of harmony does this country’s God seek to establish, then…?”
“The Four Rulers,” the man said, turning to look at Kitty for the first time. “The ideal form of this country’s monarchy should have a King Minor in the shadow of the King Major, and a Queen Minor in the shadow of the Queen Major. Light and darkness. The unfortunate prince as the fortunate prince’s shadow, and the unsightly princess as the beautiful princess’s shadow. Marrying elder to elder with younger to younger—Major with Major, Minor with Minor—is the natural state of the monarchy.”
“Well, well,” exclaimed Kitty. “Things are much the same in Denariland.”
“The structure of the false gods’ rule is similar in all countries. I once escaped the role of King Minor, while the one who likewise escaped the role of Queen Minor is now among those shadows.”
“Truly…?”
“The only way to contain and control Reason is to make her the Queen Minor. As proof, they’re trying to force that whelp Skeptic into the role of the King Minor. Right now, the King Major cannot reject God’s intentions. God would crush those children’s attempts at resistance one by one, and it’s only a matter of time before He starts planning to destroy the Door of Journey… However, so long as the King Major accepts the Door of Journey, the situation will remain unchanged, for better and for worse. The question is what the next King Major decides to do… That’s what we must ascertain.”
The man’s words, like a whispered soliloquy, melted into the darkness.
“…It’s a strange twist of fate. The Girl of Reason, who wields the sword of the former Queen Minor, is set to be made the current Queen Minor. I, the former King Minor, spurred her to become a Nomad, which led her to encounter the tragic youth set to become this age’s King Minor and sparked in him the desire to depart on a journey himself. The Guidance within her is always reporting to me… Such is her fate.”
“Fate, you say…,” Kitty murmured. “For one such as I, who was sent to observe Reason, that word is forbidden. My role is to keep watch over her… If ‘fate’ were to befall her, I would throw my life in the balance to prevent it.” His crimson eyes stared down the man. “I no longer protect her because of your request.”
The man smiled. “Among all the Rabbitia, who plot to rule this world in place of the gods, you might be the only one who can put a bird in a cage without making it cry, Your Highness. However, we cannot return that bird to its cage without questioning this world’s Reason. Until her longing for home shatters this world—”
Kitty cut him off with a severe expression.
“You, my good sir…are dangerous. You adhere too closely to that word fate and are willing to sacrifice too much for the sake of your hope. You do not reflect on your actions at all, and if you deem it necessary for your hope, you would kill hope itself. You…deserve death.” Kitty’s fur stood on end. His eyes were wide and his ears pointed straight up, as if shocked by his own words. “…Good sir, you will die cut down by the Girl of Reason.”
Kitty gritted his teeth, looking like he hadn’t said that of his own volition, his face filled with sadness.
“If you deem it so, Your Wandering Highness, then it must be true,” the man said, his voice almost gentle. “I’m a ghost. An actor who already died upon the stage yet continues to meander following fate. Nothing more.”
Kitty shook his head with a pained expression, but the man flashed a fearless smile.
“I have nothing else to say…” The man pointed at Kitty’s red vest. “Next time we meet, I’ll take those trial ashes.”
With that, the man walked away, surrounded by the Dearth March’s wails of grief that filled the rainy night.