His consciousness was fading in and out, but Rogue knew he was being driven somewhere.
He smelled something antiseptic. The floor beneath him shook. He was bound hand and foot, so he couldn’t move. Even if he opened his eyes, it was too dark to see.
Is this a trunk?
His consciousness cut out again.
When he next woke, he could hear wind blowing.
Rogue felt it on the nape of his neck. Smelled the sea.
He realized the surface he’d been on was gone. Catherine was walking next to him. Rogue was still lying down, but he was high up, right alongside Catherine.
A levitation spell?
He wasn’t thinking straight, but he worked that much out.
Chronos was ahead of them. As was the horizon. The sky was dark, the air cold. It was night now. They were on the bluffs… He wondered how much time had passed.
“This is legitimately my last hideout,” Chronos said. “I bought these warehouses from overseas using a different name. I feel bad for those who worked here, but life is full of surprises.”
He was speaking to Catherine, not Rogue.
“I suppose so.”
“You should be happier. Thanks to you, I’ve been rescued.”
“But…”
A massive warehouse came into view. It was big enough to fit multiple whales. The shutters were down, so they headed around to the back entrance. Chronos punched a number into an electronic lock and opened the door.
The interior was full of shipping containers. Rogue was guided in, still unable to move. They stopped only when the door was long out of sight.
“All right, put him down,” Chronos said.
Rogue was lowered slowly to the floor, on his face.
“You can release the hypnosis. I want him listening with his wits about him.”
“……Thanks, fairy,” Catherine said.
And then the fog on Rogue’s mind lifted. His vision cleared. Catherine and Chronos were looking down at him. He tried to get up but failed and his forehead hit the floor. When he checked, he found his limbs were bound.
“That is impressive. No prep needed. I can see why they call you the Saint.”
Chronos knelt down and shook Rogue’s shoulders.
“Pick your head up.”
“……Why?”
Why were Chronos and Catherine together?
“Um…Detective…”
Catherine had her hands over her face. Her shoulders quivered. She seemed ready to faint. What had driven her this far into the corner? Even when Miseria had been on her case, she hadn’t been this cowed.
“What did you do to her?!” Rogue snarled, thrashing in the dirt.
“Nothing.” Chronos shrugged. “I simply know a bit more about her than you. I’ve seen the empire’s Historia in the Vault of Records. And it just so happened to be opened to the page about her. So I know what she did.”
“……Please,” Catherine sobbed. “Don’t tell him.”
“But we must,” Chronos said ruefully. He turned to Rogue. “Detective, do you know why we began calling them witches?”
“……’Cause they bring calamity to the empire.”
“True. But not strictly accurate.”
“……They have power.”
“No. I suppose you wouldn’t know. But what makes a witch a witch is their state of mind.” Chronos tapped his temple. “Wolves prey on sheep. It is their nature. But what if a sheep ate another sheep? They have no need to eat meat, yet they cannibalize their own kind. Detective, that’s the point I’m trying to make. Witches are cannibals. They’ve turned on their own kind. What powers they have are beside the point. Even if their powers are inadequate, witches live only to satiate their own appetites.”
Here, Chronos pointed at Catherine.
“Catherine the Saint could not save her hometown from the volcano’s fires. But that is not the truth of the matter. She could have saved them—she simply didn’t.”
“……No more…… I’m begging you……,” she pleaded.
Tears were streaming past Catherine’s palms.
“Oh, drop the act, Saint. You’re enjoying this. Betraying people is what you live for.”
Chronos forcibly yanked her hands away from her face—revealing the smile behind those tears. Like a child on their birthday.
“Don’t look at me, Detective,” she burbled happily, even as the tears fell. Her lips curled in a brilliant smile.
“Cath…erine?” He could not believe his eyes. “You’re kidding… Say you are!”
“I-I’m sorry, Detective! This is very real. I’m so excited right now!”
“Wh-why? You said we couldn’t let this vicious killer remain at large! Was that a lie?!”
“Not at all!” Catherine cried, shouting over him. “Horrible things are happening to innocent people! Of course I pity them! These crimes are unacceptable!”
She sounded anguished.
This did not feel like a lie. She sympathized with the victim’s pain, and she genuinely wanted to rescue them. He could sense those emotions.
And that was why.
“But that’s what makes it so good! There’s nothing I love more than seeing people who trusted me with their faces twisted in sorrow or rage as the life ebbs out of them!”
He had no clue what she was on about.
“Th-th…,” she stuttered. “The guilt just feels so good! I—I really did try to stop myself! B-but you’re just such a righteous man, Detective Rogue! I started imagining what it would be like to betray you and couldn’t get it out of my head!”
Her voice was getting louder and louder. The tears were still flowing. Proof her grief, too, was genuine.
“I’m so, so sorry! I can’t apologize enough for betraying you, for bringing about your death! Despise me all you like! Don’t ever forgive me!”
She clearly meant every word.
But…
…the more she talked, the colder his heart grew.
“I’m sorry… I’m so, so sorry!”
Catherine was smiling through her confession. Looking him right in the eye, with a grin on her lips.
Oh…I get it.
Rogue finally understood what Miseria had said to her.
“I love honest people. And I loathe you. You get why, yes? ‘Saint’ Catherine? A sad little witch, unable to offer any form of salvation.”
That was entirely correct. She’d known Catherine’s nature all along. Catherine could offer no salvation, and she never intended to. And that gave her infinite sorrow______so very dishonest.
As he lay stunned, shoes came closer to him.
“She’s the one who knocked you out. Cast Hypnosis on you. Then she released me from the cell. I thought the witches would be on our trail, but she took care of that, too—with Hide.”