“Aisha,” said Izuna. “Don’t you want to see your father?”
“Weh? I-I do...but...”
“You can! If you believe and make a wish, you can see him again!”
“But...that’s...”
“I mean it,” Izuna said. “When you’re alone, think about what your father would be doing. Remember him, and wish from the bottom of your heart. If you do that, you will meet him again.” Izuna seemed convinced of her words.
As the sun set, Izuna jumped off the swing and began walking off alone. “Aisha...” she said. “Will you come here again tomorrow?” She held out her pinkie finger. “Promise?”
“Yes, I promise!” said Aisha. The two girls entwined their pinkie fingers under the light of the setting sun.
~ ‡ ~
The church with the dragon emblem was a gathering place for the oldest faith in the world—the Holy Church of the Ancient Dragons. The relief on this particular church was red, symbolizing the fire dragon. The last time Nacht had encountered said fire dragon, it had made such a bad impression that she had seriously considered killing it. In fact, she was still of the mind that she hadn’t punished the dragon nearly enough for laying its claws on Aisha. In retrospect, Nacht wondered if perhaps it was his draconic presence within the church that had unknowingly drawn her to this spot.
That being said, Nacht certainly had no intention of taking her unfavorable impression of the fire dragon out on the girl in front of her. The fire dragon and Tina the priestess were different people, after all.
“Well, then. Ready for our chat, Tina?” Nacht asked with a smile.
“Y-Yes,” she said. “Please ask me whatever you wish. It’s the least I can do to make up for my terrible rudeness earlier.”
She must have been referring to how she’d pointed her sword at Nacht when she was up on the roof. Nacht, however, found herself taking an interest in this girl, who had so fiercely pointed a sword at her. After all, when most people met her, they couldn’t see past her beautiful character design. It was rare for someone to come away with such an unfriendly impression of her.
Nacht slowly looked Tina over. The first thing that stood out was her unruly head of hair. She even had a lock sticking up that seemed to quiver when she was tense, reflecting her emotions. She called herself a priestess, but she wasn’t wearing anything that looked like holy attire. Nacht deducted a few points for that. Rather than a priestess, she looked like a light-armored sword fighter, with a red-bladed longsword sheathed on her belt.
“Don’t worry about it!” Nacht said. “What’s important is that you seem like a pleasant enough person to be around.” Nacht eyed Tina up and down, making the girl tense up even further—to the point that beads of sweat started forming on her forehead. Nacht’s golden-ringed eyes could see through to the depths of a person’s heart, and right now, they were searching every last inch of Tina’s body. Eventually, they stopped, fixating on Tina’s sizable chest. Tina squirmed bashfully and did her best to hide her breasts from view.
“You’re not entirely human, are you?” Nacht asked. “I can sense a faint draconic presence in you. And it’s subtle, but you have the same smell as the dolls infesting this city.” She took a step forward, closing the distance between herself and Tina. They were close enough now to feel each other’s breath on their skin. Nacht reached out, trying to find the source of the presence she felt.
“Nh!” Tina reflexively reached for her sword, but Nacht grabbed her hand as it touched the hilt, preventing her from drawing. “What?!” Nacht ignored her expression of surprise and, using her free hand, touched the girl right below her chest. “What are you...?”
Nacht could feel something cold beneath Tina’s smooth skin. Something metallic buried under her warm human flesh. Nacht felt it beat with a heart’s rhythm. “Who gave you this heart?” she asked.
Tina gasped, her eyes darting every which way. “H-How did you...?!”
Nacht removed her hand from the girl’s chest and sat down on a nearby sofa, crossing her legs. “I told you,” she said. “You smell just like those dolls I keep seeing around the city. I was hardly going to fail to notice something so similar when it was right under my nose.”
Tina’s heart had the same presence to it as the dolls. Nacht was sure that the same person must have created both. At first, Nacht had wondered if Tina was a mere tool of the people who had deceived Aisha, but the girl’s behavior had led her to dismiss that hypothesis. It had been a bit of an overreaction, but her having moved to protect the children from Nacht seemed to demonstrate that she was a human with free will.
“Is someone threatening you?” Nacht asked. “Did you lose your heart in a fight? Well, either way, if the same person put that heart in you, it means you must know the ne’er-do-well who deceived my Aisha.”
“Are you an enemy of the demons, then?” Tina asked. “But why would an exalted demiwyrm...?”
Nacht shook her head as she mulled over the new bit of information Tina had just given her. “I just happened to be in the area,” she said with a wink. “I was hoping to get an explanation from you since you seem to know something about what’s going on here. I told you, didn’t I? I want to chat.”
“And you, the exalted demiwyrm Nacht, would be our ally? And the enemy of the demons?”
Nacht laughed at the question. “If I said yes, would you believe me?”
“I-I just meant—”
“I’m not anyone’s ally or enemy. But you look like you’re in a bit of trouble, you know? Why don’t you try talking to me? I might be able to be a bit of an ally to you after all, Tina.” Nacht smiled kindly, but Tina recoiled and backed away, shaking.
“This is what becomes of humans who make deals with devils,” she said. It seemed terribly unfair, Nacht thought, to put a beautiful young lady like herself in the same category as the likes of Levi. Tina clutched the hilt of her blade. “It began a few years back, I believe,” she said, her voice full of regret. “Or at least, that’s when the rumors started. I’m sure that by that time, that demon woman was already in control of this kingdom.”
~ ‡ ~
It began with the king’s announcement: “My wife has returned from the dead!”
But in truth, there was someone else in Estoll Castle who was said to be far closer to a king than that man was. The woman in question had so quickly earned so much authority through her aggressive politicking that some even speculated that the king was on the verge of abdicating the throne. She was the noble daughter of House Rainfiel, a family that had long served as civic officials for the kingdom of Estoll. She was a young genius who had secured the position of chief court wizard through nothing more than her own innate magic talent. And soon, that talent had earned her the post of prime minister. Her name was Analissia Rainfiel.