Chapter One Hundred Eleven: A Toy Box, a Girl Who Played Make-Believe, and a Girl Who Turned Puppet
LILLY had been imprisoned, so she had to know my reason for coming. As always, she wore a smile on her face as she studied me with a bewitching gaze.
But unlike before, she no longer kept up the act of mild-mannered, superficial politeness that hid a tongue sharper than knives—instead, she openly expressed her ardent desire and hostility. Such was her true self.
“So? What’re you gonna do with me? Feel free to take revenge for how I stole your fiancé.”
“…Ah, now that you mention it, there was such a person.”
“Wow, you’re awful. Alexei Streltsy’s the name. At least make the effort to remember that much.”
My life in Orient had been like a dream come true, and furthermore, my body and heart and even status all belonged to Emperor Haruka. Though my former fiancé had endlessly abused me and had caused me nothing but suffering, the sound of his name stirred not a single emotion in my heart. Perhaps it was an innate defense mechanism at work—which prevented me from being dragged back into the pathetic girl I had once been, gloomy and miserable.
Lilly sized me up during my silence, then scoffed. “Well well, your complexion’s much healthier and your clothes are lavish too. Looks like you’re living the life. Good for you.”
“You have stopped speaking so politely,” I noted.
“Yep! Other people didn’t notice at all, but you did!” Lilly was surprisingly amicable. Her voice was cheery and she leaned forward excitedly. “You know, at first, I was like, oh, I guess I’ll try to put on a Saintish attitude at least, but nah. Someone low class like me couldn’t never keep it up. Never in a thousand years.”
She was growing increasingly animated and chatty, and she gave me a friendly smile. “Could you stop being so stiff too? Even if you’re all polite to me, it’s not like you’re gonna get anything outta it.”
I shook my head. “I am not polite because I am looking for something in return.”
“What a goody-two-shoes we have here.” She shrugged, looking exasperated. “That’s why you always end up the toy of those bastards in power.” She scowled, squinting one eye in resentment. Her glower seemed to be directed not at me but at my position as someone who had become a disposable “toy” at the whim of fate. “You have strong priestess powers too, don’tcha? Why didn’t you do as you pleased like I did?”
“Unlike you, I was not summoned here from another world. I was born here and inherited the blood and obligation of my family. I am someone who survives with my two feet planted on the ground, not an outsider tethered to somewhere else.” I paused. “Indulging in self-destruction will not gain me anything.”
“Oh? You say that, but living earnestly only got your house burned down, remember?” She cackled.
I sighed. “We will get nowhere with this conversation. The responsibilities and burdens on our shoulders are different, and so are our attitudes toward that weight.”
“Yeah, guess you’re right.”
I hesitated. “You…”
“Hm?”
“You had every opportunity to reach a happy future as the Saint if you acted responsibly in this world. But even with that knowledge, you still chose this end. Am I correct?” I stared into her eyes with conviction. My intuition told me that I was right.
She didn’t show much of a reaction. “Sure, people fawn over me and worship me cuz I’m the Saint or something, but so what? I just want to break everything. I mean, think about it. A woman who’s born in a lame-ass bland world to a lame-ass bland family, and she’s thrown around and used like a freakin’ rag doll, worn out and tattered, and suddenly she’s summoned to another world! As the oh-so great lady saint with the best looks and status and power possible!”
She stroked her hair and skin in rapture as though she truly did love her appearance. “A bunch of papercut people who only existed in data before walk around as they please, as if followin’ some sort of ‘I’m a human’ script, and they suck up to me, callin’ me Lady Saint this, Lady Saint that. When I try to play with them a little bit, they start heading to their doom or die or get horny. Hah. What a bunch of idiots.”
“I disagree.” I shook my head firmly. “Even if they are characters from a story, they still live every second of their lives as desperately as normal humans. We have no right to toy with their lives as we please.”
“Rich coming from the gal who changed said story to protect the man she loves.”
I sucked in a sharp breath.
Upon seeing my reaction, Lilly must have felt that she had found a critical foothold. She grinned wide with rose-red lips. “I’m a hundred percent sure now. Wagtail Priestess—you played that game too, didn’t you?”
“…Yes.”
“Ah, you mentioned you were reincarnated, so maybe you don’t know.”
“Huh…?”
Unexpectedly patient, she explained, “Okay, listen up. There was actually an official one-shot manga spinoff featuring a route where the Oriental emperor survives and Sai Cutrettola’s the heroine.”
“There…was?”
“What I don’t know is whether that one-shot manga was created ’cuz you changed the plot, or if you were only able to save him ’cuz there was already such a spinoff.” She shrugged.
Relief washed over my heart. But at the same time, her admission bothered me. She could have chosen to hide the existence of the spinoff route and used her knowledge to verbally disarm me and drive me into a corner before finding an opening to attack me with her magic.
But she didn’t. Why had she told me something that would reassure me instead?
I was distracted for a moment by my confusion, and when I focused again, I saw her sitting on the ledge of the room’s window. The tower was so tall that I could only see endless sky behind her. The pitiful amount of mana she had left was granting her some immunity to magic, yet there was only one outcome if she fell.
“Lilly.”
“Ye-e-es, Sai?”
“You…wanted to die in this world, right? From the very beginning.”
“Yeah.” She paused. “Ugh, damn it, this is so frustrating.” Abruptly she covered her face with her hands and started to laugh. “Ha ha ha! Hee-hee… Looks like you’re actually the person who understands me better than anyone. I wish we could’ve chatted more.”
Wind tugged at her hair, and she put a hand to the strands as she laughed. Sunlight illuminated her from behind; she was so beautiful that she could have been a painting.
“You know,” she began, “I killed myself before I was summoned here.”
My eyes widened. “You…”
“I died, I came to a new world, and then I was told I had to work hard again in this new place as the Saint. But I was already totally fed up with livin’ for the sake of other people.” Her face darkened slightly.
I was speechless.
“So yeah, I messed everything up, almost like flippin’ a toy box upside down. I even experienced love, and it was fun. Before I was summoned here, I was used by a scumbag of a guy to fork in cash, and that was the end of it.”
I realized that for a single word, her voice had been tender, soft. Perhaps…she loved my former fiancé from the bottom of her heart.
“Lilly. You ruined a country, rampaging until you were imprisoned. You wanted to force the Wagtail Priestess’s hand with your misdeeds…to force the priestess to put an end to the Saint—to you.”
“Pretty much.”
“But I will not let you die. Never.”
Lilly stilled on the window, staring at me.
I took a step forward. “No matter how painful your life was in your original world, it is not a valid excuse for you to trample on the humans of another. If what you seek is death, then I cannot use my powers for that purpose.”
“It’s not like you have to. Jumping from here will do the trick instantly.” She shrugged. “I arranged for you to come during my final moments not because I want you to kill me, but because I wanted a last chat.”
“Wha…”
“Because my intuition was telling me that you’re my little buddy, someone who knows about my original world. That’s why I wanted to talk.”
“Why would you…” I shook my head in disbelief. “We could have simply become friends like normal people do.”
“That’s ’cuz I didn’t want to remember my original world until I was on death’s door. I wanted you to be the last person I spoke to. Nothing more.”
“I cannot say I understand your way of thinking…”
“Well, ask yourself this instead. Have you ever understood any of my feelings to begin with?” With an alluring smile, she leaned backward. There was no hesitation as she kicked against the wall to give herself a boost.
At the last moment, she smiled at me again, a pure, enchanting smile as carefree as a child. “Bye.”
Then.
“Lilly!” rang a familiar voice from behind me. Someone rushed past me, wind in their wake, to chase the woman beyond the window. It was Alexei who leaped into the void, hugging Lilly’s body to his own. Alexei, stripped of the shining silver armor he had taken such pride in and reduced to a mere, ordinary man.
Lilly’s eyes widened. “Alex…ei?!”
The pair hurtled headfirst down the tower. There wasn’t time to think.
I cast the spell.