Chapter 4: The Witch of Yore

The final day of the Festival of Gratitude was upon us, and Liese’s hair had the same white flower in it as always. Although the Witch of Yore was due to resurrect later in the night, for now I waited on the sidelines in a ballroom full of dancing students.

My fiancée was wearing a uniform from the royal guard and had tied her hair high to keep it out of the way. A single lirene poked out from the base of her ponytail.

“M-My role today is merely to serve as your protector. With clothing like this, I cannot dance with you in good conscience. I, well... I refuse to act in a manner that may bring dishonor to your name. So, um...”

This little debate of ours had been continuing quietly in the corner of the dance hall. With my arms around Liese’s hips and a smile on my face, I leaned in close to whisper directly in her ear.

“Liese, you are the most beautiful person in the world, no matter what you wear—and seeing you in this uniform is adorable in its own right. Above all else, this is my last year to partake in school festivities. Won’t you please grant me one more memory to share with you?”

“The blushing Lieselotte falls silent! She held out for a good while, but it looks like this argument is coming to an end!”

“They say fondness of the heart is bondage of the mind, and besides, tonight’s event isn’t formal enough to worry about slandering the prince’s name. Liese-tan should throw in the towel. She danced with Fiene in the game, and there are plenty of same-sex pairs throughout the hall. One couple in a tuxedo and military getup is nothing.”

Hearing Lord Endoh and Lady Kobayashee, I glanced over at the ballroom floor. There were indeed several pairs of boys and girls gleefully dancing away with other boys and girls, respectively.

We were far from the likeliest to stand out, and societal shame was the least of my worries. I simply wanted to hurry over and show everyone around us how well Liese and I got along. To dance with her would surely be great fun.

“Oh, come to think of it, Fiene was really nervous earlier about this being her first time dancing in public. Liese-tan took her hand, saying, ‘Then allow me to be the one to judge how far you’ve come,’ and the two of them danced at home before coming here.”

I couldn’t let that slide. Lady Kobayashee’s news instantly split my heart open.

“So you’ll dance with Fiene, but not me...” My arms went slack, and I gazed into Liese’s eyes. Listening to my own voice, even I could tell that I sounded hurt.

“Wh-Why do you—in any case, that was simply to confirm that she wouldn’t embarrass herself. I didn’t mean anything by it. With our impending battle, this truly isn’t the occasion to let ourselves get too lost in merriment anyway, and...”

“They really looked like they were having fun at home, you know?”

“Plus, when they finally stopped, Liese-tan was all, ‘I suppose you pass,’ and Fiene blushed with joy. I could practically feel the lilies blooming in the room.”

The gods’ assistance let me see right through Liese’s excuses. I squinted my eyes in a sullen glare and she awkwardly averted her gaze. She had enjoyed herself before the ball, and she knew it.

“The witch isn’t appearing here at this very moment, is she? Tradition says that those who share a final dance on the last day of the Festival of Gratitude will be able to overcome the harshest of winters together. But as it stands, your last partner will be Fiene... I don’t think I can forgive that.”

I sighed, causing Liese to look to and fro, at a loss for what to do.

The Festival of Gratitude was a tradition to offer the plentiful bounty of the autumn harvest to the many gods that watched over us—the Creation Goddess Lirenna chief among them. Details varied depending on region and social status, and the academy began merrymaking earlier than most. It was seen by many as a practice run for the official event held in the royal palace.

Each fall, we gave our thanks for a bountiful harvest and another year spent with those we loved. Alongside that, we prayed to the divine powers beyond that we might all survive the harsh winter to come, and the superstition of the dance was a direct result. Surely even the silliest of hooligans would take to the floor with their chosen partner for the final song.

“Um...” My stubborn fiancée continued her mumbling. “But Fiene is dancing with Baldur as we speak. Thus, our mere practice session at home is sure to be overwritten, and, well...”

I’d been staring at her for some time now, but I finally looked away. I made sure that my downcast eyes seemed as sad and hurt as I could possibly manage.

“Ah! ...V-Very well. Let us dance, just for a short while.”

Liese’s reluctant approval immediately brought back my smile. I knew she was kind; perhaps prodding at her sense of guilt was better than trying to convince her with reasonable arguments.

“Only for a short while! Am I clear?!”

I avoided giving a definitive response and led her to the center of the room with a smile.

“Whatever the case,” I said, “we ought to hurry and dance. It seems like we’ve been holding up the crowd.”

As the crown prince and the daughter of our kingdom’s warmaster, we were the most prestigious couple in the room. Although our teachers had told us not to worry about etiquette in this casual setting, there were more than a few people waiting for us to take to the floor before joining in themselves.

Finally noticing their presence, Liese closed her mouth. She followed my lead with all the elegance in the world.

────

After one song, I could feel the crowd around us ease up. Liese tried to return to the edge of the room, seeing as our “short while” was up, but I didn’t let her go. I continued my steps to the music without any hesitation; she had no mind to embarrass me, and entrusted her body to me.

“Liese...” As we slowly moved in correspondence with the second song, I asked an all too familiar question. “Are you really coming to the yard with us?”

“Of course,” she said without skipping a beat. “The Witch of Yore and her mental attacks did not instill me with fear—they roused the urge to cut her down with these very hands.”

We’d gone through this routine countless times now. With the upcoming battle now soon to start, I couldn’t help but wish for Liese to remain in the safety of this ballroom. I could no longer quell the rising fears within me. I continued thinking of ways to convince her to stay behind, but she interrupted my train of thought.

“Above all else, I...I wish to be with you, wherever you go.” Liese spoke without a hint of shyness. “To wait for you alone is a fate far more terrifying than to face her with you.”

I guess that’s fair.

If Liese were ever to march into danger, I would never allow myself to sit in the cradle of safety. The whole kingdom could tell me to stop, but my position as a royal or the crown prince would never be enough to let her go alone.

I agreed with Liese’s resolution. At the same time, it caused a warm fuzzy feeling to spring up in my heart and curl my lips into a smile.

“Then how about we head there hand in hand? Just like the first day we met.”

“When we first met?” she asked, curious.

On our first meeting, I’d spent an entire day holding Liese by the hand. She had been only five at the time, so I couldn’t fault her for forgetting. At that point, I hadn’t known she was to become my future bride—in fact, my parents hadn’t either.

I hadn’t taken her hand out of obligation, but out of a purehearted desire to continue being with her. I had acted the part of a prince because I wanted to catch the eye of the cute girl who’d called me one. I had smiled for her just because she had seemed nervous.

Alas, our relationship had twisted out of shape by the time my princely mannerisms and crowd-pleasing smile had become muscle memory. Liese’s thorns were so sharp that I had genuinely believed she did not like me. In fact, because of my misunderstanding, our families had rushed to put a date on our wedding plans.

Seeing Liese furrow her brow as she attempted to recall our first meeting was adorable; her put together military garb was as charming as it was new.

Lieselotte Riefenstahl had been, was, and would always be cute. I wouldn’t have ever realized this simple truth had it not been for Lord Endoh and Lady Kobayashee’s help. So I didn’t mind if she’d forgotten our first meeting—though of course, I would be delighted if she did remember.

“You don’t have to try so hard to remember. What I wanted to say is that you were cute at age five and are even cuter now, Liese.” I snickered. “All that matters is that I remember.”

“Wha—uh!” Liese was amusingly flushed. Her mouth froze, still open, until she lost her temper and shouted. “Oh, hnngh!”

Regardless of her embarrassment, Liese’s dancing remained impeccable. I expected nothing less of her.

“Very well. Let us go hand in hand. Truthfully, I...would feel stronger that way too.”

Liese’s face was still red, her eyes were still downcast, and her voice was nigh unhearable. Even so, she spoke those words for me all the same.

“But you must let go once we arrive!” she said, trying to overwrite the mood of her previous statement. “I wield a spear, so you absolutely cannot get too close!”

“Sure,” I said with a tender smile. “With all that’s happening tonight, I can’t argue with that.”

Liese was perceptibly relieved. I decided not to tell her that I had no intention of letting her go on any other night.

After the Festival of Gratitude comes the relentless cold of winter. Far, far beyond, I want to still be with you. All I ask is to hold this hand tight forever—to never lose sight of the joy your presence brings.

With my ardent prayer on full display, I continued to dance with Liese.

────

Naturally, Liese and I were the life of the event for the final song. She glared up at me a bit, but I didn’t mind. There were swaths of girls swooning over my fiancée’s attractive new outfit, and I wanted to show them all how perfect we were together.

“Whew, that was a feast for the eyes. Gosh, that was awesome... All right everyone, it’s about time.”

Lady Kobayashee’s satisfied voice led me to look around the dance hall and lock eyes with Fiene. Having heard the same message, she nodded and came over to us with Baldur in tow.

“It’s time, I take it?” Lieselotte said, still holding my hand. Her tone was utterly calm. “Fabian and Cecilie should already be posted in the garden with my father and eleven knights.”

General Riefenstahl had been adamant on not breaking the convention of outsiders staying away from academy affairs. Instead of meeting us here, he was to wait for us in the yard. However, not all was as planned.

“Huh?” I said. “Why is Fabian of the Oltenberg Viscounty already there?”

“Apparently,” Baldur said, “the girl he wanted to share his final dance with ‘is waiting for him in the garden,’ so he withdrew early. Or at least, that was the excited report I received from Cecilie.”

“For real? What a heartthrob.”

“Holy moly. I knew Fabby-boo would grow up to be awesome!”

It seemed the younger duo were getting along well. Secretly, I felt relieved. Thank the gods I don’t have to be on edge when he’s with Liese anymore.

“Ugh, I’m surrounded by lovebirds,” Art said. “Get me out!”

My best friend made his grumpiness easily known as he entered the scene. The Festival of Gratitude was also a sacred holiday, and he was wearing his white priest habit in honor of the heavens. The stoic clothes were at total odds with the gaudy pink-gold of his hair, especially with the red highlights running through his locks. His sulking frown only worsened the mismatch.

“Art, this is what you get for fooling around so much.”

As I spoke, I led our assembled team out of the hall and toward the garden. Art hurried to line up beside me for his refutation.

“Don’t say that—the world is just so full of cute girls! And hey, I don’t fool around, all right?! I’m the one getting dumped most of the time. Lady Lieselotte and Fiene are both prime examples!”

Liese glared at him like he was the scum of the earth. I heard an “Uhh...” from Fiene as she hid in Baldur’s shadow.

“Perhaps,” Liese spat, “your frivolity in sweet-talking me and my sister is the very reason you fail to find a partner?”

“After all, neither Liese nor I had eyes for anyone else since we first met ten years ago,” I added with a chuckle. My comment caused my fiancée to fall into bashful silence; in contrast, my best friend clutched at his chest and looked incredibly pained.

“Cheating bad! Never!” For whatever reason, Lord Endoh’s voice sounded both strangely robotic and peculiarly musical.

“Good job, Sieg. Flirting at every given opportunity is one of the major parts of defeating the witch! Giving up on Professor Leon was a tough blow, but Liese-tan is so stable now that there’s nothing to fear!”

The goddess fanned the flames of my courage. As we marched toward the climactic battle, I tightened my grip on my beloved’s hand.

────

At long last, we arrived. We showed up on site with only ten minutes to go before the gods’ prophesied battle. Fabian, General Riefenstahl, young Cecilie, and eleven other knights were waiting for us with their arms at the ready.

The five of us also scattered to the positions we’d agreed on beforehand while bearing our weapons of choice. Art still looked a bit upset, but everyone was ready to give it their all.

Slip.

“Ah, it looks like I’ve made it in time.”

Suddenly, a masked man literally slipped out of the darkness.

“What the— Where did he come from?!”

Lord Endoh was stupefied, and I had no hope of answering his question. The man had appeared out of thin air without any semblance of warning. He’d practically bubbled up from the veil of night.

“You!” a middle-aged soldier barked. “Identify yourself!”

“Ah, well... I wonder, who am I?”

The man tilted his head. His lanky frame stood at about 175 centimeters or so, and his hair was chestnut brown—but most distinctive of all was his bizarre mask. It was shaped like a snow white cat and only covered the upper half of his face.

He might have seemed alien to me at first glance, but he was more familiar than one might expect. The knights who didn’t recognize him were on full alert, but the younger soldiers—who had probably only graduated the academy a few years prior—joined me and the rest of the students in utter confusion.

“I am...let me think...hm. Call me Karlchen. Such a shame that I’m a cat and not a rat.”

The man’s smile was so similar to his usual facial expression that I didn’t need to see his eyes, and his bored voice was completely unchanged from his ordinary lectures.

“No, no, no, wait!” Fiene exclaimed. “I can see your squinty eyes through the mask, Prof—”

“Wow! Gee! I wonder whoever this could possibly be!”

I summoned all the air in my gut to cut Fiene off with the loudest voice I could muster. All at once, everyone present turned toward me. The younger members of our task force all knew exactly who the mystery man was, and they all had the same look on their faces. If stares could talk, theirs would all say in unison: What the heck is this guy saying?

Those who did not recognize him were all utterly perplexed.

I knew. Of course I did. How could I not know that the man was Professor Leon in costume?

Why didn’t he at least choose to wear a full mask? Why did it look like a cat? What on earth was he on about with rats? There were so many questions I wanted to ask, but I fought the urge and elected to announce my ignorance of who he was.

Some time ago, Lady Kobayashee had said, “No one can find out about Professor Leon’s powers.” I knew of his family history, and his theatrical entrance alone was enough to see the bigger picture. If Leon Schach could do that, he would certainly disappear without a trace.

Thus, I chose to feign ignorance with all my might. As the highest authority present, I acted out my part.

“On my name as the crown prince, I declare that I do not recognize this man. My loyal subjects, are there any among you who dare claim that I have empty sockets for eyes? Let only those who wish to slander the heir to the throne speak of his identity!”

I made sure to lock eyes with every single person during my speech. The confused faces slowly turned into acceptance—or at the very least, no one looked like they would pry any further.

“Ah! Gee! I don’t have a clue who this man might be either!” Thankfully, Marquis Riefenstahl played along.

As both a general and the second-in-command tonight, his backing was vital. No matter what the so-called Mr. Karlchen decided to do, he would be written off as a cryptic stranger who nobody knew. If nothing else, I knew the knights would stay silent.

“Yes, indeed.” Relieved, I continued my charade. “I’m sure Mr. Karlchen must have sensed the Witch of Yore’s terrible presence and came running to help. That’s right, he must be some sort of mage of justice!”

“Of course!” the general said, nodding. “Although we have exactly zero hope of ever discerning his identity, I’m sure Sir Karlchen is an upstanding man of great skill, wholly worthy of our trust!”

While everyone else was petrified with bewilderment at our exchange, one person was smiling. In fact, he covered his unmasked lips and began trembling in laughter.

“Pft, pfffft, ha, aha ha! Oh, goodness. Your Highness, you are such a good lad.”

“I see. By using Sieg’s power as crown prince, we can place a gag order so Professor Leon can fight without worrying about his identity!”

Hearing Lady Kobayashee praise me in awe was wonderful, but being laughed at by “Mr. Karlchen” himself was excruciating. I was so embarrassed that my cheeks were about to catch on fire. As improvised as it was, my acting was woefully inept.

Gods, make it stop.

“Anyway, this means we have the whole reverse harem roster! Sweet!”

Lord Endoh’s excitement helped alleviate some of the shame. He reminded me that to defeat the witch was to protect Liese and our kingdom. That awful farce had been a small price to pay for victory.

...Yeah, let’s go with that.

“Hm... But why did he decide to come join us of his own free will?”

Lady Kobayashee’s question got me to start thinking as well. I couldn’t think of any reason for our teacher to put himself at such risk for us.

“Ha, aha...phew.” Finally done laughing, the man looked straight at Fiene and smiled. “As I said, I am Karlchen. Consider me a...friend, perhaps? Yes, a friend—a stand-in or disciple, even—to a certain princess who bid me to come help.”

When Fiene had arrived at the ball this evening in her new dress, some of the staff who knew her mother had praised her as the second coming of the Fae Princess. She’d flashed them an adorable smile then, but now her face was scrunched up in perplexity.

“We have the full reverse harem crew and they’re all stronger than in the game, plus Liese’s dad is leading the finest knights in the whole kingdom to boot! I can’t think of a way not to win!” Lord Endoh’s voice grew weaker. “...We really are just bullies, huh?”

“The crime of laying a hand on my Liese is grave. I would say we haven’t gone far enough!” I said, raising my sword with vigor.

“Anyone who dares to hurt my sister and try to steal her body is downright evil! We can kill the witch a hundred times and it still won’t be enough!” Fiene said, readying her bracers with a nod.

“That’s the spirit, you two! I doubt there’s any way for us to lose, but stay on your toes. Beat that witch down with everything you’ve got!”

Fiene and I nodded along with the goddess’s command. Ironically, the target of Lady Kobayashee’s blessing began angrily shouting at us.

“Sieg! Fiene! W-Would you please not spout such embarrassing lines in a moment as important as this?! To begin with, our opponent is the Witch of Yore. This battle isn’t about me, it ought to be about the good of our nation!”

“Don’t mistake me,” I said. “The kingdom is important. But as the crown prince, I should be holed up, away from the front lines. I’m here tonight as your future husband, ready for war because someone dared to hurt my beloved Liese.”

“I...um! I-I understand. If that is your will, Your Highness, then I swear on my post as your fiancée and on my pride as a Riefenstahl to protect you!”

Liese twirled her spear and steeled herself with renewed resolve. Something I said had lit a fire in her heart.

“There’s nothing stronger than a lovestruck maiden! Give it your all, Liese-tan!”

“Come forth, accursed witch! I shall strike you down so quickly that you won’t even have a chance to plague His Highness’s eyes!”

Lady Kobayashee and Liese’s voices echoed through the courtyard in harmony. What answered was a black fog that oozed out of the ground in the precise spot the gods had predicted.

“That’s the blight that surrounds the witch!” Lord Endoh cried. “Be careful, you’ll get weaker if you touch it!”

“Have Fiene and Art purify it!” Lady Kobayashee said.

“Art, purification magic!” I relayed the message to Art. He was one step behind Fiene, as she’d reacted to the initial divine order, but the two of them quickly bathed the area in holy light.

“And Fabby-boo should—oh, he already started casting! Nice! Everyone else is standing by until she appears, just like we planned! Oh, and Professor Leon’s fine on his own, since he’s resistant to the blight. In fact, his spells are really messed up, so don’t let anyone get in his way!” Lady Kobayashee ran through our strategy at lightning speed.

As she said, Fabian had already begun morphing his mana into a massive spell on the back line. On the other hand, Professor Leon AKA Karlchen had been standing right beside the witch’s spawning point. He alone had been immediately engulfed by the miasma as a result, but he was smiling without a care in the world. As a matter of fact, he was merrily humming as he prepared to counterattack.

“Nobody stand in front of Mr. Karlchen!”

I did my duty and notified the others, but no one had planned to step forward in the first place. Just looking at the black mist was enough to tighten up my chest, so none dared to join our masked friend. The fact that he was still breathing was unbelievable.

Fiene and Art used their holy powers to envelop us in a protective light. Slowly but surely, they pushed back all of the blight to the source. As they did, the air around us grew lighter and I could finally catch my breath.

But then, the miasma moved. The final remnants of the insidious fog balled up as if it were a living being, and flew straight at Liese.

“Liese!” I screamed.

“Lieselotte!” Fiene tried to reroute her purifying glow toward her sister, but it wouldn’t make it in time.

“Don’t toy with—what?!” Liese sliced through the ball of mist with her spear. The evil fog scattered, but a small bit managed to cling to her head.

“Liese!” I sprinted to her side.

“There isn’t any need to...huh?”

Liese tried to wave away the remaining blight and tell me not to worry. Instantaneously, her neatly tied ponytail burst to let her hair flow freely; the lirene that had been nestled within fell to earth.

“Ah... No, no... This...can’t be...”

Liese weakly shook her head and reached out to the fallen flower. Her spear fell to the ground with a loud clang, but she hadn’t even noticed.

I was no better. My eyes were fixed on the same thing hers were: the brilliant white of the lirene—of what had been a lirene—was now a hideous, withered black.

“Why? The lirene is...” Lady Kobayashee trailed off in shock.

“Is that flower important?” Lord Endoh asked.

“That’s the flower of Lirenna, the goddess who created their entire world. It can purify stuff and it’s Sieg’s seal—anyway, it’s a really important flower! It’s supposed to be a key item that you can use to restore a tiny piece of Liese-tan’s sanity after she turns... Oh no, what do we do?!”

This was the first time I had ever heard Lady Kobayashee sound so helpless. Every word was uttered through trembling lips.

“S-Sieg!” Liese’s scream brought me back to reality. “Please, return to the ballroom at once!”

Unable to understand what she was saying, I cocked my head to one side. Liese’s pleas grew more and more desperate.

“I’m begging you, run! If I fail to fend off the witch, the world will be safe so long as I die! But you? I can’t... I can’t let you...”

Liese’s hysteria was proof that something was terribly wrong. Her face was white as a sheet and she was violently trembling.

“Calm down, Liese. It’ll be all right.” I ran my hand across her back, but her jitters didn’t stop.

“I-I can hear her voice... She’s been speaking to me ever since I touched the miasma. ‘I won’t ever be loved,’ she says. ‘Sieg is going to leave my side forever!’”

Liese cradled the sullen petals in pain. It was true that lirenes symbolized me, and the one in her hand was horribly decayed; I couldn’t blame her for worrying. But even so...

“That will never happen.” My assertiveness caught Liese off guard, and she stared at me blankly. I looked straight into her eyes and continued. “Liese, you’re adorable beyond belief. Everyone here loves you more than you know.”

“Th-That’s right!” Lady Kobayashee stammered. “Liese-tan, you’re so cute that you charmed us across dimensions!”

“Why do you think everyone is here to fight?” Lord Endoh said calmly. “No one is leaving your side, let alone Sieg.”

They were exactly right. The dependable gods put a smile on my face.

“Let’s hold hands after all.” I sheathed my blade and squeezed her hand, but Liese still looked lost as she looked around us. “We can entrust all this sword and spear business to our friends.”

“Rest easy, Lieselotte.” The first to speak was Bruno Riefenstahl. “With my beloved firstborn and the king I will one day serve at my back, this blade will cut down any foe!”

The towering general rallied his men; I doubted that there was anyone else in all the land who could inspire as much confidence as he did now.

Baldur marched to his side and Fiene followed on his wing to take their places in front of Liese and I.

“If the main house is the sword, then we branch Riefenstahls are sure to be your shield. They raised me as your brother, and I swear that you’ll be safe so long as I’m still standing. Feel free to take a moment to sip some tea and relax.”

“Don’t worry, Lieselotte! I’ll make sure to power up this living shield of yours and repair him if he ever breaks! He might chip or crack, but I’ll fix him up like new! You just enjoy that tea of yours, sister dearest.”

The two of them exchanged their jokes with dauntless smiles. They looked at one another with fearless eyes.

“Fiene, go ahead and use all your mana on supportive magic,” Art said, waving his wand. He enveloped Liese in a tender light and added, “Healing is my specialty. I once cured a thousand wounds with a single spell—let me show off my skills!”

Art’s smile was as carefree as ever. There was recorded evidence of him healing a thousand injured after a natural disaster; the legend went that he’d cast a spell larger than our entire academy. I knew he wouldn’t let anyone here suffer so much as a scratch. The spell he’d just cast was already improving Liese’s complexion.

“Don’t worry, Miss Liese! Once His Excellency cuts the bad witch up, I’ll burn her to cinders!” Fabian’s adorable smile and voice were in stark contrast to the hellfire he was manipulating overhead. Even from afar, I could tell his fireball was made of ludicrously dense mana. He truly would burn all Liese’s foes to ashes.

“And at the end of it all, allow me to put an end to the witch’s soul. We wouldn’t want her coming back, now would we?” Professor Leon Karlchen’s subdued grin was similarly antithetical to the bone-chilling statements he was making.

“Liese-tan was so lonely in her memoir, and now...” I could hear a tear of what I could only presume to be joy welling up in Lady Kobayashee’s quiet voice. Slowly, she finally began regaining her usual strength. “Liese-tan! We’re rooting for you too! With all these wonderful friends and a prince who loves you, I know you’re going to be okay!”

“Liese, look at how much we all love you. The lirene may have wilted, but I’m still here. And I still love you as I always do. If that isn’t enough to best your worries, then all I ask is that you don’t let go.”

Whether from fear or weather, Liese’s hands had been cold. Yet as our fingers intertwined, they slowly took on heat.

You’re alive. You’re here, beside me. These were the emotions her warmth provided me, and I could only pray that she would feel the same.

“...My sincerest apologies. I appear to have lost sight of myself.”

Liese spoke with a steady voice as she squeezed my hand back. She straightened herself and rose to her feet with strength.

That very moment, the lirene in her other hand floated up and began to glow. As if to reciprocate its white radiance, the miasma around the witch’s point of appearance had been replaced with a white smoke—and somewhere inside the fog, I saw sparkles of gold.

Although we’d prepared a handful of bonfires to light the yard, the sun had set and it was far darker than daytime. Yet the flower and cloud were glowing a transcendent gold and white.

What in the world?

“I-I don’t know what’s happening, but it looks like the witch is appearing!” Lady Kobayashee said. “Huh? Th-There’s something in the smoke!”

“Why does she have a body?!” Lord Endoh cried. “The Witch of Yore is supposed to be sealed away as a formless spirit!”

Following the gods’ commentary, I turned my attention to the smoke. I could definitely see something within.

Come at us!

A sudden gale swept through the yard. The lirene danced off into the night sky and the cloud obscuring our sight disappeared. What remained was the silhouette of the Witch of Yore. Known as the Great Calamity and Malevolent Black, this sentient catastrophe had felled countless nations and brought our very world to the brink of destruction several times over.

At long last, she appeared before us...groveling in the dirt.

“Why’s she kneeling?”

“What’s with the pose?”

“Can I try punching her?”

“But what if she’s preparing an unusual spell?”

“Stay on guard, this might be a ruse!”

Although we were all thrown into chaotic discussion, not a single person broke their stance—ah, well, other than Art. For whatever reason, he was frozen in place with his jaw wide open.

“The witch’s hair is white!” Lord Endoh said, confused.

Both the prophecy and the two gods had claimed the Witch of Yore to be an entity of total darkness. However, in reality she had fair white skin that bordered on translucent, and her hair was a glowing platinum blonde. Her heavenly locks were beautiful enough to steal my breath away. Her strange pose caused it to sprawl out on the ground, filling me with a strange sensation of guilt.

“Why does she look like a P2 color variant? Why is she physically there instead of being an ephemeral ghost?” Lady Kobayashee asked in a rhetorical tone. “I have no idea. Don’t let your guard down!”

I nodded out of habit, but the figure on the ground looked so far from evil that I couldn’t bring myself to act. Rather, I had my qualms about trying to hurt someone that looked like they were begging for forgiveness. I was sure everyone else felt the same.

“Oh? Fiene’s making her move!”

“It looks like she’s as lost as us, but her plan is to start off with a punch to test things out. Hm? No, it looks like Art caught on and is moving in to stop her, for some reason...”

Apparently, I’d been wrong. Not everyone felt the same, as there were two exceptions that the gods dutifully offered their play-by-play and analysis on.

“Fiene, wait!” Art said. “You can’t hit her, she’s—”

“I-I’m so incredibly sorry for what I’ve done!” the witch shouted.

In a quivering voice, she cut off our wonder-priest. Yet we heard her loud and clear despite the shaky tone: the Witch of Yore had apologized. She raised her head and stared straight at me with shimmering, golden eyes.

“I don’t have any intent to resist! I unconditionally surrender! So please, I humbly beg you to show mercy!” Slam! She bowed down so hard that I could hear her head hit the ground.

“Wait, no, oh my—p-please, raise your head!” Art rushed over to her in a panic and tried to help her up. I couldn’t even remember the last time he’d spoken this politely to someone.

“Let go!” the witch said, pushing him away. “Groveling is the least I can do! I’m the Witch of Yore—I’ve done terrible things! I even tried to hurt Lady Lieselotte, and the remnants of my malice attacked her just now... One hundred times is a bit scary, but I can’t argue with being killed!”

Knowing that I was the preeminent authority, Art looked up at me as if he were the one begging for forgiveness. Don’t look at me like that. I don’t know what’s going on.

“What does this mean?” I asked.

What I’d gleaned up until this point was that as glowy as this clump of white and gold was, she was still the Witch of Yore. I found it awkward to reconcile her infamy and the colors I shared with the Goddess Lirenna herself, but I was still on full alert.

The witch’s voice was shaky as she began to speak; I couldn’t tell for sure because her face was still in the dirt, but she might have been crying.

“Um...I’ve been linking my heart to Lady Lieselotte’s. I was hoping that my loneliness, suffering, frustration, jealousy, and hatred would all resonate with her and we’d sync up together.”

I already knew that. That lined up with what the gods and Liese had told me.

“But then emotions like happiness and bliss came flooding back to me! Thoughts like, I love Prince Siegwald I love him he’s so cool I love him he’s as lovely as ever I love him oh I love him so much—”

“Stop! S-Silence!” Liese screamed. She was beet red.

“Yes, ma’am! I’m so sorry!” The witch ground her forehead deeper into the ground and fell quiet.

“Such a shame that everyone here already knew how madly in love Lieselotte is.”

“The two of us have been letting it slip left and right, and it’s not like it’s that hard to figure out. Lately, Liese-tan herself admits it when she loses her temper.”

The witch glanced at me while I was busy smirking at the gods’ remarks. Simultaneously, Liese looked up at me with teary eyes. I grinned from ear to ear.

“Miss Witch,” I said, “continue, if you would.”

Seeing me press for more was quite the shock for Liese, but the witch seemed rather happy and she resumed her story.

“Yes, sir! Gosh, it got so bad that I nearly fell for you myself! I’ve heard that there’s nothing stronger than a lovestruck maiden, and boy, they meant it! As Lady Lieselotte’s happiness and love for you filled my empty heart, the ugly feelings clinging to me dissolved away. See, look at my eyes! They’re back to their original gold, right?!” The witch raised her head and pointed at her sparkling eyes.

“I wouldn’t know what color they originally were,” I said, troubled.

“These are, without a doubt, her original eyes.” Art sighed. “I’m fairly certain this woman is the Goddess of Creation, Her Holiness Lirenna... Am I right?”

“Yay, you know me! That’s right, I’m Lirenna! You have a good eye!”

If we were to believe the two kneeling on the ground, the woman squealing in joy was apparently the Creation Goddess.

“I’m not a priest for nothing,” Art said in modesty. He then turned to me. “So it’d really make me feel better if we could have her stop grinding her face into the floor. It doesn’t look like she has any will to resist, so can we please let her at least sit up?”

“Let’s hear what she has to say. I get that Liese-tan’s heart cured the Witch of Yore to restore the Creation Goddess to her true form. But why were you a witch to begin with? Why did you attack Liese-tan in particular? And I’m not sure you know the answer, but why can the people of this world hear our voices—including you? Tell us everything you know.”

Hearing Lady Kobayashee speak, I looked at Lirenna and realized something. “There’s nothing stronger than a lovestruck maiden” was a phrase from my color commentator in the heavens, but this new goddess had repeated it moments ago.

“As you wish, Lady Kobayashi, fair goddess of the outer realm. But please, this pitiful fool has sinned so heavily that it pains me to hear you call me a goddess. Lirenna is plenty. And I think we should start with the story of how we first created this world to mirror yours.”

The almighty Goddess Lirenna knew all to be known about our world—perhaps even of Lord Endoh and Lady Kobayashee’s—and she began to tell her tale...

────

In the beginning, there was one. This singular entity simply was—until it eventually came to realize its own state of being. The thing was, and it had an overwhelming duty to foster reality.

Immediately after recognizing its own consciousness, the existence was overcome with loneliness. It knew itself to be absolute. It knew itself to be God. It followed that it knew itself to be alone.

Thus, the entity split itself into halves. These two gods leaned on one another, cooperating to create the world.

“Reality is boring. I want others that will talk to us.”

“You want sentience? That will be a daunting task. It will take many eternities, and we may still fail.”

“Then we merely need to imitate creatures from somewhere else. Let us find intelligent life elsewhere and shape our world to support beings like them.”

The two wills converged to give birth to a planet much like the one they used for reference. They made land, seas, and sky, filling them all with the same kinds of life they saw outside of their realm. And so, the world came into being.

“Let us be the mother and father of this land.”

Upon creating their own cast of mortals, the two halves morphed into the Mother Goddess Lirenna and the Father God Kuon, defining themselves with the familiar forms of a humanity from a distant star. With platinum hair and golden eyes, the beautiful pair glowed with holy light.

Seeing one another, the two felt love. They went on to birth all sorts of life: those that propagated without needing to consume other life, those that soared the skies, those that were strong, those with sharp claws, those with poison, those that bred quickly, and more.

Many things came from their matrimony, but only the fittest went on to survive. After much life and death, at long last, the world saw its first person in their image.

“How similarly it looks to us.”

Seeing a creature so perfectly alike to the species the gods had mimicked filled their hearts with love, and their affection for their progeny was to be shared in equal parts between them. Alas, Kuon faltered.

As the first man and woman fell in love, the Father God watched them and pined for a more mortal yearning. And so, he wished to make the first of women his own.

“I have no need for the other.”

Kuon succumbed to his desire, killing Adam in the hopes of winning Eve. Yet he could not erase what had already been, and Eve never forgot her first love. She wailed over her lifelong companion, and no amount of divine passion could get her to smile toward the heavens. The first woman lived out her days, her heart still firmly seated with her lost husband and the children they’d made.

“I wanted to be loved,” Kuon cried. “That is all I ask.”

“I love you,” Lirenna said. “More than anyone else can possibly hope to.”

Yet no matter how many times the goddess put her devotion into words, the god would not cede.

“You are me. I am you. We are one. What point is there to be loved by you? I want Eve to choose me. Among the countless possibilities that dot our world, I want her to pick me as the best. I want to be chosen...and loved.”

Whether Kuon’s love was purely romantic or of a broader scope, none could say. Perhaps he’d developed the mortal emotion of obsession, as godly as he was.

Regardless, caught up in the god’s powerful emotion, Eve’s soul was burdened with the fate of infinite rebirth. She was born, raised, loved, and seen off again and again and again. Yet no matter how many times the cycle repeated, she never came to love the god.

At times, Eve fell for souls other than her original husband. Even so, Kuon alone remained unloved. Was it because he’d killed her first true counterpart? Was it because of his hubris? Was it because gods and humans simply couldn’t see eye to eye?

Kuon did not know, but after an eon of repetition, he resolved himself for something new.

“I will become mortal, and win her love as a human.”

The Father God steeled himself to end his existence as a divine entity. Yet as patient as Lirenna had been, she could no longer hold her tongue. To lose her counterpart—the one being that she shared equal footing with—was unacceptable.

Thus, the two fought. Born from a single consciousness to a fate of togetherness, the halves began to war in the name of what each called “love.”

“Thank you...for killing me.”

At long last, Kuon faded away with a smile. He had won, in a sense. One half of the original creator was wiped away from existence, leaving no trace, even in history. The other half wept in sadness and rage, sinking into the darkness.

I hate this. Don’t hate me.

I love you. Don’t look away.

I hate her. Don’t take my light away.

I love you. You’re mine.

I hate you.

I love you.

That’s why I can’t ever forgive or forgive or forgive or forgive or forgive or forgive or forgive or forgive or forgive or forgive you for abandoning me.

■■■■.

Without Kuon at her side, the ugly pain that Lirenna had long been able to suppress finally swallowed her whole. Once the embodiment of holy light, she fell to be the pitchest black, ready to destroy all that she had birthed.

Lirenna enacted her vengeance on the woman who had stolen Kuon’s heart, and on the people surrounding the woman, as if to assault the world with her distorted emotion. Her hatred rained down on the land as a curse.

Her blight gave birth to monsters that attacked humans, caused natural disasters, and toyed with the minds of mortals. Those who survived her trials came to know her as the Great Calamity or Malevolent Black.

Weakened by the long war between godly halves, Lirenna was pushed back by the concerted effort of humanity. Alas, she was the mother to all of existence; time and time again, she gathered or stole the powers of her creation to resurrect herself and once again throw the world into chaos.

Months became years, then decades, and history spoke of her legend as the terrible Witch of Yore.

────

“...And so, basically, Kuon and I had this huge lover’s quarrel. In the end, he managed to get what he wanted by erasing his existence as a god in this world, and I turned into the Witch of Yore because of it.”

After listening to the goddess’s tale, every single one of us stood at a loss for words. Hearing the history of our universe and the origin of our people straight from the source was an incredible privilege. It was, but...

“You tried to destroy our world because of jealousy...” Fiene’s quiet mumbling cut through the silence loud and clear. The atmosphere that followed was difficult to describe.

Fiene said what we’d all been thinking. The scale of the issue in question was massive, but the overall summary was just ridiculous.

“Yup, that’s about right,” Lirenna said. “My husband Kuon cheated on me and skipped out of town, so I lost my marbles and threw a huge fit. That’s all there is to me being the Witch of Yore.”

The Goddess Lirenna acknowledged Fiene’s accusation without hesitation, but I couldn’t do the same. I’m sure the others were just as lost. I looked around to see everyone present staring at their shoes with difficult expressions.

“Um, so, uh... Sorry.”

Noticing our discomfort, Lirenna planted her forehead back on the dirt. Not even Art bothered to help her up; he instead stared at the back of her head in a daze. Frankly, I think he made the right call.

“But, hey, um, a bunch of wonderful gods rose up to stop me! And I know Kuon’s a total mess, but I feel like the world we made together is a really nice place. The apple doesn’t always fall so close to the tree, and all that...” The goddess glanced up at me with expectation. “Right?!”

“Oh, speaking of which,” Art said, cocking his head, “who exactly are all the gods we worship outside of you, Lady Lirenna?”

I’d been wondering the same thing. Lirenna once again sat up, put on a contemplative face, and started thinking. We all waited without a word.

“Um, well... Where should I begin? Let me think... Oh, I know. What do you all think magic is?” After seeing us all tilt our heads, Lirenna continued. “Spellcasting is the art of directly meddling with the fabric of reality to bring about specific effects. Generally, it’s on a smaller scale than what I can do, but what you call ‘magic’ is the same thing as my divine powers. They’re the administrative tools that Kuon and I used to shape the world.”

The Creation Goddess’s groundbreaking news sent a wave of confusion throughout the yard, but she paid us no mind. Without any ado whatsoever, she went on.

“Kuon and I clashed until every bit of his heavenly power was chipped away. The remnants of his strength were scattered across the globe, and since you humans happen to be similar to us, it came to rest in your bodies. Originally, this kingdom was founded by a bunch of people like that, and they decided to give themselves authority by claiming to be nobility. After a whole bunch of generations of marriages between the bloodlines with Kuon’s power, it looks like you’ve naturally evolved to manipulate more magical energy. But to start, I think your forefathers just happened to be similar to us.”

The murmurs in our midst grew even stronger. Those around us desperately stared at me and Art in hopes of being led by a royal or by an educated priest.

“Among them, there were some with plenty of talent who worked extremely hard. They managed to accumulate so much magical power that they were able to defeat me—that is to say, they’d entered the realm of divinity. They sharpened their arcane skills, deepened their mystic understanding, and came to recognize the truth of the world. These enlightened souls went on to become moderators of the planet after death, and are who you worship as newer gods today. Even among the people present tonight, I count...more than one with the potential to join them.”

The First Goddess had come this far without pause, but she finally took a moment to sigh.

“At first, we created your kind just to have some company. I never imagined that you would grow up to inherit our powers and carry the burden of caring for our world as gods. Children truly do grow up quickly, don’t they?”

Lirenna smiled like a proud mother. However, her explanation had only raised further questions for a member of the royal family like myself.

“Then why,” I asked, “does my house have the power to hear the Voices of the Gods? If the divine are meant to be ascendants from our own people, then what about the records of otherworldly knowledge bestowed upon us through prophecy? What even is this power to begin with?”

“Uh, well, the whole Voices of the Gods system is...frankly, a tool to cheat. We modeled everything after Lord Endo and Lady Kobayashi’s world, so we figured it would be nice to have a way to help our people’s culture and technology catch up. But explaining intricate details was such a pain—uh, I mean... See, it was just kind of a hassle—er, um... Well, you know, I’m not an expert or anything, so it would be so hard to get the point across if I had to explain everything! Right?!”

The prophetic ear that put my family into power had been created to serve the Goddess Lirenna and her laziness. Everyone’s gazes shifted from expectation to pity. I soldiered through their painful stares with the fakest smile I could muster.

“So, um, anyway. We made this system where the brightest minds of Lord Endo and Lady Kobayashi’s world can leave messages for our planet after death. Once that was done, we picked a handful of families to inherit the ability to hear the messages, and the Fitzenhagen bloodline was one of them. Then we told them, ‘Make a country that can lead the world, and spread the word to your neighboring nations.’ For some reason, they got the idea that the tidbits of advice were from the gods. And, um...”

There’s more?! By this point, I was feeling rather down on myself. Still, I continued to listen to her explanation.

“The whole ‘prophecy’ thing isn’t my work, but something the newer generations of gods came up with. I’m not totally sure because this is someone else’s handiwork, but my best guess is that they were all, ‘Whoa, the mortal realm sure is in dire straits. Man, if only we could tell them they’re in for some steep trouble. Oh, I know! They have this Voices of the Gods thing, so I’m sure it’s fine for us to use it too. Let’s go team Fitzenhagen!’ Or something like that.”

“Hold it!” Lady Kobayashee exclaimed in a state of panic. “We’re not dead, and we definitely aren’t the ‘brightest minds’ or whatever. Plus, we’re not gods of your world, so what about us? How come we’re able to talk to everyone through Magikoi? While we’re at it, why were we able to bless people like real gods?”

“That’s, um...” Lirenna awkwardly looked around. “It’s probably my stalker husband’s fault.”

As the Goddess Lirenna mumbled out her answer, she slowly reverted to her now-familiar groveling pose. I no longer had any qualms about seeing her shining hair flow out over the mud.

“At first,” Lirenna said, “Kuon tried to reincarnate as a human in our world, but the curse I scattered everywhere prevented him from doing that. But even without his powers, Kuon was still technically a representation of the world itself, and so he couldn’t reincarnate in yours either. Eventually, he ended up possessing some poor soul in your world...”

“Wait, possessing?!” Lord Endoh asked. “He’s not his own person?”

“You don’t mean...Kuon Kirise?” Lady Kobayashee said in shock. “He’s being controlled by the God Kuon?!”

Lirenna looked up for a moment when the gods began to shout, but quickly ground her temples back into the floor. Her form was so perfect that I began to think we ought to replace all the statues in our churches with a groveling version of her. This pointless fantasy was far more palatable than the situation I faced at present, and it only got worse as Lirenna quietly answered in a voice oozing with remorse.

“That’s right. To make matters short, Kuon used Kirise’s body to create Magikoi. His plan is to use the game as a medium to summon Fiene to your world, since she has Eve’s soul. Overall, Magikoi—”

“Wait, wait, what?!” Fiene screamed. “Hang on! I heard you say something insane!”

Lirenna paused her explanation and stared at Fiene, puzzled. In return, Fiene slowed down and asked her question more explicitly.

“Um, does this mean I’m Eve? Or at least her reincarnation?”

“...Duh? That’s why I clung to Lady Lieselotte, since she shared the same jealousy toward you as I did.”

The way the goddess made it sound like the news was beyond obvious struck a nerve with Fiene. Her voice turned into a low growl, and her question sounded more like interrogation.

“What did you mean when you said he wants to ‘summon’ me to Lady Kobayashie’s world?”

“It’s exactly what it sounds like. Kuon wants to rip your soul out of your body and plop it into a fresh corpse, or someone who’s already dead inside. Then, I’d imagine he wants to act all lovey dovey with you until you both die.”

“Oh my gosh, all this ‘fresh corpse’ and ‘dead inside’ stuff is so messed up,” Lady Kobayashee whispered.

“That means Kuon’s willing to prepare something like that in our world for Fiene, right?” Lord Endoh asked, his quiet voice rippling through the air.

Without a soul to inhabit her body, Fiene would likely be dead or all but dead in our world. Realizing that she was the target of such a diabolical plan drained all the color from her face. She stumbled backward, and Baldur promptly stepped in place to catch her. The news stirred up our emotions, and Liese and I glared daggers at the groveling goddess.

“I-I’m so sorry!” Lirenna said, bowing once more.

“An apology does not suffice,” Liese said in a harsh tone. “I can accept that I was attacked due to my emotional shortcomings, but Fiene is innocent! To think that your other half would go so far as to harm a blameless person in another world in a sick attempt at winning my sister’s love... How foolish can he be?!”

“Kuon and I are incompetent fools, and I can’t apologize enough for what we’ve done.” Lirenna gradually buried her head under more dirt, only to suddenly shoot up with tears in her golden eyes. “B-But! Your heart is beautiful, Lady Lieselotte! When I linked my soul to yours, you saved me! I’ll bear the responsibility of my own crimes, but I refuse to let you deride yourself in this way!”

The goddess’s desperate objection managed to overwhelm Liese, causing my fiancée to bite her tongue.

“I agree that my Liese is a wonderful girl loved by all,” I said, and in her stead asked, “but what exactly do you mean when you say she ‘saved’ you?”

“At first, I thought Lady Lieselotte was the same as me,” Lirenna said, still facing the floor. “Plus, she’s physically and magically strong, so I just thought of her as a convenient target. But Lady Kobayashi and Lord Endo protected her, and what’s more, you showered her with love, Siegwald. Most important of all, she has a virtuous heart that shines with the brilliant rays of true love. In the end...I realized that we’re nothing alike.”

Beside me, Liese hung her head. The embarrassment of being praised caused her face to flush a bright red.

“As I came into contact with Lady Lieselotte’s emotions, I slowly remembered the love I had once held for Kuon and the world we built together. She let me return to my purest form. The attack that accompanied my resurrection was just the last bit of my corrupted soul lashing out... I’m so sorry. Oh, and the lirene only withered because it represents me and all of the things that were going on in my heart. I wasn’t trying to threaten you or anything, it’s just, um—”

“We don’t have all day. Skip all of the excuses.” My order caused Lirenna to pause and take a deep breath.

“When I was the tainted Witch of Yore, I could only fuel myself with unsightly feelings. The jealousy, resentment, and grief I absorbed only twisted me even further. However, my forgotten self was able to collect the warm adoration of all who worshipped me as Lirenna in that time. The hope, love, desires, fortunes, and prayers that you and your ancestors offered at Festivals of Gratitude throughout history all gathered to nourish me. That’s why I have all my powers, and even a real body again! Look at me, I have legs! The Mother Goddess of Creation is here in all her glory!”

Lirenna jumped to her feet and showed off her holy shine. Her platinum hair fell past her waist, and her arms and legs were long and slender. Even the pieces of dirt clinging to her seemed divine as her entire body glowed in a brilliant radiance.

“The second coming of the Goddess Lirenna...” Being a devout priest, Art had tears in his eyes. He didn’t seem to mind all the mud on the goddess’s forehead, hands, knees, and even hair.

Of course, the Creation Goddess regaining her true powers was cause for celebration. Her renewed ability to know the truths of our world and beyond was great and all, but...

“It’s all thanks to you, Lady Lieselotte! Thank you so much!” Lirenna exclaimed. She then turned to Art with clasped hands. “And so, um...do you think you could arrange for her to be honored by the Church in some way?”

...The way the Goddess Lirenna begged a priest of her own religion was just so pathetic. I could hardly believe she was divine.

“Of course!” Art said. “I’m sure she’ll be exalted as a saint...which means other countries will want her on their side. Can you two hurry up and get married already? If you do, we can invite Her Holiness Lirenna to show up with a hurrah and announce Lady Lieselotte’s sainthood then and there.”

Apparently, my best friend did not share my concerns, and he casually threw together a wedding plan for me and Liese. My brain paused at the sudden shift in conversation, but my bright red fiancée began shouting without skipping a beat.

“M-Marry?! What in the world are you saying?!”

“No, no, I’m serious,” Art said. “Lady Lieselotte, you’re the daughter of a marquis who also happens to be the head general of a kingdom, and you’ve been training to be a queen since childhood, plus you’re beautiful. If you ascend to being the saint who revived the Goddess of Creation, people will start wars over your hand in marriage. So if you and Sieg can hurry it up with a wedding sponsored by the gods themselves, that would do wonders to stop a lot of strife.”

“I agree! Endo and I are totally on board!”

Art’s calm explanation was immediately followed by Lady Kobayashee’s excited voice. As the second party in this wedding for two, I was bewildered.

Wait, give me a second here.

“Then I simply won’t become a saint!” Liese said. “I haven’t done anything noteworthy to begin with, and a holy title like this is better suited for another. In fact, if you’re so keen on these theological pursuits, why don’t you take my place, Artur Richter?”

“No, nope, nuh-uh. I’m not lying about this,” Art said. “Her Holiness is back, and I’m not about to pretend she isn’t. There are other branches of faith outside of our country, so I doubt I could hide her presence for long anyway. Besides, if you have the Mother Goddess’s backing on the day of your wedding, your position as queen will be set in stone. You’ll never have to worry about your husband having an affair, and who will dare to politically oppose a literal saint? It’s good for the kingdom, so can you please just go along with it? I’m pretty sure the higher-ups at the Church will tear me to shreds if you don’t...”

“Say what you will, but my marriage is not mine alone.” The two were exchanging verbal blows so quickly that I couldn’t get in a word. “Affairs of the state dictate when we can hold our wedding. More importantly, His Highness’s opinion on the matter supersedes everything.”

Please, I’m begging you. Just give me a moment. There’s a process to this sort of thing...

“Come on,” Art said. “That’s an easy fix. Or maybe... Could it be? Lady Lieselotte, do you not want to marry Sieg right now?”

“No, I do...um, but...”

Thank goodness. Hearing Liese admit that despite being too embarrassed to look up, I squeezed her hand tight.

“Liese,” I said. With a gasp, she turned her gaze to me. I loosened my grip, sliding in front of her and getting down on one knee. “It’s a shame my proposal has to come at a time like this.”

I awkwardly struggled to make a smile. Yet even so, Liese watched me with glistening eyes, trembling at my words.

“Soon, I will graduate, leaving you here alone for another two years. I’m sure it’s going to be difficult to find time with one another. That terrifies me. I know you’d never leave me for another, but I can’t stop those around us from loving you. So I want to show the world that you’re mine. I want to live with you to spend even a minute longer by your side. I can’t bear to wait another moment to ask... Will you marry me?”

I pulled a ring out of my inner breast pocket and tried to slip it onto her left ring finger. Unfortunately, Liese wasn’t the only one trembling; my hands were shaking too much to put the ring on properly.

Ah, gods. I’m so uncool.

“I’ve wanted to do this for quite some time. I’ve already spoken with both of our parents. I also discussed it with my father’s closest royal aides, who helped me plan. Believe me, it really wasn’t meant to be at a place or time like this...”

I’d already lost the air of composure, so I went ahead and laid everything bare. Liese suddenly turned to her father, as if to confirm what I’d said.

“It’s the truth,” Marquis Riefenstahl said. He was smiling, but there was something melancholic about the way he held back his tears. “His Highness wanted to propose sometime before graduation and hold the wedding by next fall, but...I suppose we can have things ready by the spring. In fact, that’s our only choice.”

Father and daughter locked eyes with gazes full of meaning. The extent of sentiment exchanged between the two pairs of damp amethyst gems was lost on me.

Eventually, Marquis Riefenstahl averted his eyes with a quiet nod. As Liese also turned away, I could hear her breath catch in her throat. Slowly, she faced me once again.

“...May I?” I’d finally steadied my hands and was ready to put the ring on her.

“I’m...so happy...” Liese placed her other hand on mine, and together, we pushed the ring to the base of her finger.

Fzzt!

Out of nowhere, Lirenna blasted out a ray of light.

“I-I’m sorry! It’s just, well, like I said, my soul is linked to Lady Lieselotte’s in a lot of ways, and, um... Thank you for the wonderful emotions? Gods like me happen to shine when we receive potent doses of power, and, uh, I didn’t mean to...”

As she rapidly made excuse after excuse, Lirenna bent her knees and returned to her default position.

“Read. The. Room.”

Lady Kobayashee spoke with a low tone so steeped in fury that Lirenna once again vigorously smashed her head against the ground. Unbearable silence followed, and I had to be the one to break it.

“There are still things we need to learn from this goddess,” I said. “Liese, would you do me the honor of a more put together proposal at a later date?”

Although my fiancée looked incredibly disappointed, she nodded all the same. To begin with, this was all Lirenna’s fault: if she could stay on track for more than a few sentences, none of this would have happened. I wanted to hurry up and be done with her explanations.

“And? What is this ‘Magikoi’ that you keep referencing? If Kuon is trying to use it to harm Fiene, then how did Lord Endoh and Lady Kobayashee come to use it to help us?”

I ended up coming off rather harshly despite speaking to a deity. Still, Lirenna didn’t even budge from her groveling position and answered right away.

“Kuon made a game called Magikoi, and essentially spread Fiene’s story to as many people as he could in the other world. As more people in that realm think of her and pray for her, the connection between the two worlds grows stronger. Specifically, there’s a route connecting Fiene in particular to the universe abroad.”

The goddess’s explanation painted a picture in my mind. First came a lone person walking in the snow. Then, another followed in their footsteps. Another, and another still, treading the same pockets of snowless ground, until there was a full-fledged path through the white powder of winter.

“That connection was meant to be a direct avenue to Kuon, since his long years of stalking Fiene’s soul gives them a lot of history together. Then, he’d turn the emotions of all the young girls who played the game across the globe into his own power. In fact, I suspect he prepared a story that’s similar to that.”

“The God Route,” Lady Kobayashee spat in rage.

“That’s it,” Lirenna said, lifting her head just enough to nod. “However, what Kuon didn’t account for was the possibility that his ties of fate to Fiene would lose to someone else’s affinity to the game. Basically... Wait, am I allowed to say this?”

Lirenna cocked her head with a puzzled expression. She looked my way, and when we met eyes, I mirrored her confusion. I didn’t know why she’d stopped, but I figured it didn’t hurt to nod her along.

“Basically, Kuon and Fiene’s bond was weaker than Lady Kobayashi and Lord Endo’s bond to Lady Lieselotte. I can only speculate as to why their bond is so strong, but my best guess is that these youthful gods might have empathized with her passionate, purehearted, and one-sided love. Then, they just happened to slot into the position Kuon had made for himself as the Voices of the Gods.”

One...sided...love? Whether Lirenna was talking about Lord Endoh or Lady Kobayashee, that was not something that ought to be revealed so frivolously. It had absolutely hurt to nod her along. A cold sweat ran down my spine and Liese looked like she was ready to strike the goddess down where she laid.

“But there are other possibilities! Maybe one of them has the exact same personality as someone here! Or maybe their souls are really similar to the people of this kingdom! Who knows, maybe they’re perfectly suited to wielding power that comes from the hearts of young girls! They might just happen to care more about this world than anyone else! I only made my first guess because it seemed like their attachment revolved around Lady Lieselotte, and—”

“You’re getting off track again, you useless goddess.” Lord Endoh sighed in a way that made his irritation clear.

“Erk!” Lirenna croaked. “Anyway, I’m sure the reason you two wonderful gods ended up like this is that Kuon mistakenly let his pathway to this world slip to your location. Your powers are a result of all the purehearted prayers that make up the pathway in the first place—which, come to think of it, explains why it didn’t go to Kuon. He’s the furthest thing from pure of heart...”

“You’re going off on another tangent,” Lady Kobayashee said. “Whatever, can you tell us how we ended up ‘blessing’ Liese-tan and Bal?”

“Oh, divine favor comes from a god’s love and power. In most cases, the god shares a part of their magical energy through a...prayer? I guess? Whenever a god prays for a mortal from the bottom of their heart, it just kind of happens. It’s a quirk of divinity, just like that ray of light from earlier.”

“Oh, I remember that...” Lady Kobayashee said.

Lirenna’s head had been off the ground for quite a while now, but the memory of her past mistake caused it to slowly return to earth.

“I’m so sorry! Oh, but since you two are only technically gods in this world when you’re playing Magikoi, you shouldn’t have to worry about sparkling on accident or anything! The two instances of divine favor you used were both a part of the wishes accumulated from the game’s playerbase. From my perspective, it looks like Lady Lieselotte and Baldur are being enveloped in the warm love of all the young ladies who want nothing more than for them to live.”

“That sounds like a pretty common hope for all Magikoi players, all right,” Lord Endoh said. “Still, I’m impressed that you know so much about all this.”

“With almost all of my powers restored, I’m close to being omnipotent. That’s why I can hear your voices. At this point, I have the power to peel Kuon’s soul off of the human Kirise that he’s attached to.” Lirenna stood up with her head held high and looked up at the heavens. “Lady Kobayashi, Lord Endo. I ask of you, please accept my love.”

Suddenly, a beam of golden light shot into the night sky. The holy ray soared higher and higher, further than the stars themselves. Eventually, it made its way to the gods beyond.

“Huh?”

“Whoa, what?!”

“With this, I have blessed the two of you with my divine favor. Should you confront Kuon again, I will be able to tear him off of his poor victim. Then, I can seal him away so that Fiene can live her life without worry. After all that, this awful ‘game’ that Kuon designed can end.” Lirenna flowed like water into her usual pose and begged the two gods. “I know this is an incredible burden, but please, won’t you go and speak with Kuon on my behalf?”

“Sure,” Lady Kobayashee said. Her tone was completely casual. “I mean, you already blessed us and everything, so... Plus, I feel bad for Kuon Kirise.”

“Sounds good to me,” Lord Endoh said. “There is one thing bugging me, though. Since magic doesn’t exist in our world, what point is there to this blessing? Is it just a foothold for you to capture Kuon with?”

“That isn’t all!” Lirenna hopped up and puffed her chest with pride. “The effects are harder to feel without magic, but you two—wait for it—are now extremely lucky!”

Lirenna went as far as to place her hands on her hips and cock her head toward the heavens. Her prideful demeanor got Art to applaud, but no one else followed suit. Perhaps it was all the dirt on every part of her body that killed her attempt at dignity.

“We’re...lucky? What does that even mean?” Lady Kobayashee asked, unexcited.

“You won’t be winning the lottery or anything, but getting a prize at a small raffle will be easy peasy! Oh, and the two of you are students, right? Hitting closer to home, my power will help you on your exams. When you sit down to take a test...all of the things you studied will show up!”

“But we still have to study?” The disappointment in Lord Endoh’s voice was palpable.

“Of course. If you could get full marks without studying, that would surpass the bounds of luck. This blessing is more of a ‘Oh, nice,’ kind of thing. But you’re going to be kind of lucky for the rest of your lives! You’re going to be a teensy bit luckier no matter what you do! Isn’t that amazing? Aren’t I amazing?!”

“Wow.” Lady Kobayashee was more devoid of emotion than anyone or anything I’d ever heard before. “Amazing.”