Their voices brought me out of my internal conflict. “What do you mean?”
“The thing Mama Claire said just now,” May said. “Before we met Mama Claire and Mama Rae, we were alive, but we weren’t living.”
“Being alive and being living are two different things,” Aleah said.
The twins had latched onto Claire’s earlier words. They were mature for their age, but what they were trying to express was difficult for their vocabulary.
“Every day we woke up, searched for food, ate, and slept; again and again,” May said.
“Even in the convent, the only new thing we did was pray,” Aleah said.
“But when we met Mama Claire and Mama Rae, we finally learned how to live.”
“You showed us how people were supposed to be.”
The twins smiled like little angels.
“I want to live a life worth living,” May said.
“A life without my mothers can’t be called living,” Aleah said.
“May…Aleah…” Claire pulled the girls into a hug.
Even from within her arms, they continued to speak.
“Can we please fight with you? We still have to go home together,” May said.
“Don’t leave us alone. We have to stay together as four… No, five! Ralaire too,” Aleah said.
The twins clung tightly to Claire.
“Will you still hesitate after your children have shown such bravery?” TAIM asked in that infuriatingly calm voice of hers.
“It’s not that simple,” I said.
“No, of course not. But there might be something for the twins to gain through joining the battle.”
“What do you mean?” Claire said.
With the same smile on her face, TAIM replied, “This battle will likely lift the curse on their blood.”
“What?! Truly?!” Claire exclaimed.
“I do not lie. Rather, I cannot tell lies.”
The twins had a curse that caused anything their blood touched to turn into magic stones. It was a curse not even the Tears of the Moon could lift, so I couldn’t help but get worked up upon hearing TAIM’s words.
“TAIM, if we bring the girls, what are the chances they’ll be hurt, and what are the chances they’ll…meet the worst possible outcome?” I asked.
She replied, “Injury is almost certainly unavoidable. But their lives shouldn’t come under any danger.”
“Can we choose where to have them fight in the battle?” Claire asked.
“It’d be better if you follow my calculations more or less,” TAIM said. “Having them too far back will be more dangerous than not.”
Dead silent, Claire and I met each other’s gaze.
“Miss Claire…”
“But Rae…”
“I know. I’m reluctant as well. But I think we have to do what TAIM wants here.”
Claire seemed to still have some misgivings. I did as well, of course. Nobody wanted to bring their daughters to the battlefield.
“TAIM, are you absolutely certain we can’t defeat the Demon Queen without May and Aleah?” Claire asked.
“One-hundred percent.”
“There’s no chance they might lose their lives?”
“The chance isn’t zero, but it’s minuscule. I’ll be taking extra care to keep them safe.”
“Can the curse in their blood really be lifted?”
“Yes. It is almost guaranteed it will be, in fact.”
Claire looked the most conflicted I’d ever seen her. I understood her pain well. After what felt like an eternity of silence, she opened her mouth to speak. “I understand. We’ll take the girls along.”
“Very good,” TAIM said.
“But if anything happens to them, you must expect me to become the next Demon Queen.”
“Understood. I’ll devote all my processing power to keeping them safe.”
“Please do.”
I fully agreed with Claire’s decision but wanted to get some things straight. “TAIM, please answer me these three things,” I said. “First, you said May and Aleah’s strength will be necessary to defeat the Demon Queen, but what exactly do you want them to do? Second, you said you’d keep them safe, but how exactly are you going to go about that? And third, how do you suppose the curse in their blood will be lifted? Does it have something to do with the Demon Queen?”
If I didn’t get answers on these, I couldn’t in good faith bring the twins along. Unfortunately—
“I cannot answer those questions at this time,” TAIM said.
“Why?”
“As I’ve mentioned, the Demon Queen holds administrator privileges. I cannot deny the possibility that she is monitoring me now.”
A dissatisfactory answer. But I couldn’t sense anything particularly dubious about the AI’s conduct.
“Rae, let’s just protect our children ourselves and not rely on TAIM. This isn’t the sort of thing we should leave in another’s hands in the first place,” Claire said. She turned to the twins. “Listen carefully, all right? You two need to put your own safety first. If you can’t do that much, you won’t even be able to start thinking of helping others.”
“Okay!”
“Yes, Mother!”
“And don’t act alone. I don’t know who you’ll be working under yet, but make sure you follow their orders to a tee.”
“Okay…”
“Yes, Mother.”
“Neither Rae nor I will die, not under any circumstances. So…you girls absolutely mustn’t die either, okay?”
“Okay…”
“Yes…Mother…”
Claire was a sobbing mess, her heart torn with anxiety. The twins were beginning to cry too, having seen their mother break down.
“You’re not going to cry, Rae Taylor?” TAIM asked.
“Nah.”
“So you’re okay with all this, then?”
“Do you want me to knock your lights out?”
“Pardon my presumptuousness.”
The fact that all this had come to be was because of my other self, so I couldn’t cry. I had to stay strong and take responsibility for my other self’s actions. “I swear here and now: We’ll defeat the Demon Queen, and we won’t lose anyone in the process. We’ll achieve a perfect victory.”
I couldn’t allow myself any less.
“How praiseworthy. Allow me to give you one more piece of advice, then,” TAIM said. “You’d do well to bring Lilly Lilium to the battle.”
“Miss Lilly too?” I asked. Sure, Lilly was good with her swords, but I suspected there was more to it than that.
“Her time manipulation magic can weaken the Demon Queen’s power. Magical energy is sourced from the flow of time, so slowing the Demon Queen’s time should have an effect.”
“But I thought only Lilly’s split personality could use time manipulation magic.”
“Her split personality is already one with herself. She simply hides it to avoid dredging up bad memories for the rest of you.”
Oh… I never realized.
“If you use Rod Bauer’s magic weapon to break the Demon Queen’s barrier, Lilly Lilium’s time manipulation magic to weaken her, and tandem casting well, you stand a chance at victory,” TAIM said.
“Don’t worry, we’ll win. Definitely.”
We…no, I had no choice but to win.