Epilogue: Promoted to Rank S+

*1*

Well, here’s a plot twist, Tanya snarked to herself.

After their spectacular victory at the break of dawn, surely no one would’ve seen something like this coming.

“We’re in jail!!! Again!!!”

“Hahahaha! Mon dieu, this is hilarious!”

“This isn’t funny, Laplace!”

Atop the clock tower, with their arch-nemesis vanquished, they basked in the glory of their accomplishment—and the vague sense of emptiness that followed—as the morning sky grew brighter and brighter.

Eventually Nadine and Katherine arrived with Vis in tow. And as soon as the woman in white had confirmed her princess to be safe and sound, the captain of the guard had ordered them to stand down and surrender.

At dawn, the sleeping spell Laplace had cast upon them had worn off, and so they had come running when they heard the Explosion. That said... no matter how many elite soldiers they called to the scene, they didn’t stand a chance against the Great Sorceress now that she had carried out her retribution and regained her mana. Their lives were essentially in her hands.

So what would she choose to do?

The answer, of course, was “roll with it.”

“Hahaha! Sure, I could go for a nap right about now! I’m feeling generous—maybe I’ll take a vacation in one of your cozy little prison cells.”

Naturally, Tanya understood where she was coming from, but—

“...If they find out we nuked the Court Grand Mage off the face of the earth, I’m pretty sure they’re going to give us the death sentence...!”

She clutched at her hair in distress. Of course, since Maxwell was very literally erased from existence, there was next to no chance they’d find any evidence connecting Laplace to the crime... but even so, it was plainly obvious they’d destroyed the clock tower.

“Hahaha! Why do you look so scared, Tanya? If worse comes to worst, your old friend the Great Sorceress will take care of it! I could bust us out of here, no problem!”

“Yeah, I get that, but—”

“Besides... I owe you a lot for all your help with my revenge. From now on, I’ll always be on your side. Together, the two of us will be unstoppable.”

“...Laplace...”

She felt something warm in her chest. Laplace’s gentle smile exuded unwavering trust and deep affection... but...

“Real talk—I think we’re allowed to get upset that they arrested us!”

To everyone I left back home—my mom, my brothers and sisters, my two cats—sorry in advance if someone knocks on the door to interrogate you about me. Please don’t tell them anything.

“What’s so bad about the castle dungeons? No one ever comes here,” Laplace shrugged, winking playfully.

“Probably because you loaded the place with traps on par with—you know, the other kind of dungeon!”

“Plus, it’s comfy here.”

“Only because you transmogrified a bunch of bricks to make a tea set, and last I checked, that’s forbidden magic!”

“Non, non! It wasn’t forbidden back in my day!”

“Okay, well, it is now!!!”

“Hahaha! Oh, how far Pajan has fallen!”

Tanya heaved an exasperated sigh.

Lord help me, I’m going to strangle this woman.

But on the other hand... it’s nice to see her smiling again...

“Wh—you’re going back to bed?!”

“Oh, settle down, Tanya. Katherine and Nadine are both sleeping, are they not? We should join them.”

“Frankly, I don’t know how they could possibly sleep at a time like this!”

“Now, now, they both worked themselves to the bone today. They need their rest to recover the mana they lost.”

Tanya stared in disbelief as the other two members of Lilium lay sound asleep in the king-sized bed Laplace had conjured for them. Seriously, of all the inopportune times for a catnap... Am I the only sane woman here? I thought for sure Nadine would be on my side!

“Mmm...”

“Oh, she’s awake.”

“Hmm? Oh, good morning, Tanya.”

Nadine offered her a sleepy smile. She seemed happier now that she’d had some much-needed rest... A little too happy, in fact... She almost seemed to be glowing... You doing okay, Nadine?

Next to her lay a certain blonde foxkin girl, sleeping with a contented smile on her face... Am I missing something?

“I guess I really needed that nap!”

“Yeahhhh... Fair warning, you’ve got major bedhead right now.”

“Aack!” Nadine hastily pressed her lavender hair flat against her head. Behind her thick lenses, her eyes sparkled. “Wake up, Katherine.”

“Meow...?”

“Meoow?!”

“I thought you were supposed to be a fox!” Tanya shouted before she could stop herself.

Just then, Nadine tensed up.

“Someone’s coming.”

*2*

It was Arianora. She was dressed not in her pajamas from last night, but in a beautifully embroidered dress embedded with violet gems signifying her royal status. This was Arianora Aweigkorrt, the Crown Princess of Pajan.

“Wait, what? How did she evade your traps?”

Somehow, this young girl had walked straight through the equivalent of an adventurers’ dungeon.

“Oh, right. About that... My traps are designed not to activate against us.”

“ ‘Us’? What do you mean...?”

“You, me, Nadine, or Katherine, obviously.”

“What? But—”

“And Ari counts as me.”

“Oh!”

Tanya clapped her hands together in understanding. In order to create Arianora and the other Brides, Maxwell had essentially cloned Laplace. Evidently their mana signatures were so similar, even Laplace’s spells could be fooled into thinking the Princess was the Sorceress.

Accompanying Arianora was a crowd of attendants her same age—Katherine took one look at them and yelped.

“What the?! You all survived?!”

“Yes, thanks to your perfect heat control,” they all responded in perfect unison.

There were slight variations in their physical appearances—some had dark hair, others had blonde or even white hair—but they all shared the same facial features, and each of them was the spitting image of Laplace herself.

These were the girls from the laboratory—the Brides that Katherine had done her best not to injure with her Fox-Fireballs.

“Whoa... They can talk!” Tanya exclaimed. Apparently they were more than just creepy puppets.

“All thanks to you for putting an end to Maxwell’s reign of terror,” Arianora explained, standing tall and proud among her sisters. She smiled. “Members of Lilium, I am prepared to hold an audience with you... Come and see me when you’re ready.”

And with that, Arianora turned on her heel and left the dungeon.

*3*

As Tanya and the others entered the audience chamber, they gasped and marveled at its beauty and opulence.

“Holy crap...!”

Stained glass windows. Velvet drapery. A vaulted ceiling. Not a single decoration out of place.

Surrounded by rows of guards on both sides, they walked forward. Ahead of them was a small, but swanky, staircase leading up to a platform. There, two thrones had been erected: one for the ruler of Pajan, and next to it a smaller version of the same chair.

“So this is Lilium, is it?” asked the man sitting on the larger throne, his expression a bitter scowl.

Holy crap, I recognize this guy, thought Tanya.

You see portraits of him everywhere, thought Nadine.

It’s the friggin’ Emperor! thought Katherine.

Growing up, they’d only seen pictures of this man... But now here he was, right in front of them. And for some reason, the man himself didn’t look anywhere near as gallant as he did in all the paintings.

Put bluntly—

“Hey there, mister, who pissed in your cereal this morning?” Laplace snarked.

“Pfffffft!”

Tanya’s shoulders shook as she tried to hold in her laughter. To be fair, Laplace had only voiced what everyone else was already thinking. The Emperor looked ghostly pale and absolutely miserable.

“Allow us to ask you directly. Last night, the top of the Ode Castle clock tower was obliterated using an inhumanly powerful magical attack. Ordinarily we would have Maxwell the Court Grand Mage investigate this, but as of now, he seems to have vanished.”

Tanya flinched. Yes, that’s right! Guilty as charged! We destroyed the clock tower, and then we watched the sunrise. All in all, it was a total blast! Ugh, we can’t tell him that... er... can we...?

Just then, it occurred to her: had any of them actually done anything wrong?

Nadine and Katherine stood close together, both of them gazing at Tanya. Meanwhile, Laplace was shadowboxing the air in front of her and muttering “You gonna sentence me? Huh? Huh?”

No... He wasn’t going to sentence them. After all, they hadn’t actually done anything wrong. Sure, they’d destroyed Maxwell’s 300-year legacy—but so what? So what if he was a war hero? After everything he’d done to oppress women all across the Empire, he kind of had it coming.

So Tanya took a deep breath and said:

“That’s right. Laplace and I destroyed the clock tower and obliterated Maxwell. It was all our doing.”

“Tanya!” Nadine gasped.

All around them, the castle guards gasped in surprise. There was a long moment of silence —so long, they started to wonder if it would ever end. But eventually, the Emperor broke the tension with a heavy sigh.

“Then it appears the report was indeed accurate.”

“R-Report?”

Just then, they heard the clack, clack, clack of high heels. Reflexively, they turned to look as the guards around them all dropped to one knee in perfect unison.

Standing at the door to the audience chamber was—

“Princess Arianora!”

“Lady Tanya! Lady Laplace!”

She took one look at them and smiled gleefully, her eyes sparkling. Next to her stood—

“...Uhh...?”

Like Arianora, this woman had white hair and a slender frame. Her eyes were red in hue, but it was the familiar expression on her face that finally clued Tanya in:

“Vis...?”

Indeed, it was Vis, the princess’s attendant. But now that she was holding hands with Arianora, their relationship seemed less master-servant and more... sororal. Their pale hair glittered in the light, oddly reminiscent of the Brides from the laboratory.

“Hee hee!” Vis giggled, her red eyes shining mischievously. “I admit, I’m sure it must come as a surprise.”

Her dignified voice carried across the room. And there, atop her closely-cropped silvery hair—was the crown of the Empress.

“Wh... Who are you?!”

“My name is Vistalia. Vistalia Aweigkorrt.”

“Wait... but that’s...”

“Yes. I am the Emperor’s wife... or the Empress, if you prefer.”

“Wh... WHAT?!”

Their unmitigated shock made Arianora burst out laughing.

“Empress Vistalia died in a carriage accident. That’s what we told the public,” the Emperor explained quietly. “And it’s true, Vistalia did in fact die that day. But one of our Court Mages was deeply invested in immortality research—and since he’d already lived for 300 years, we succumbed to the temptation.”

“You mean...?”

“Soul transferral is forbidden sorcery to the utmost degree, we... no, the entire Imperial Family... we all owe a great debt to that man and his magic. When tragedy befell our beloved daughter, Maxwell brought us a new one, and we adopted her. That is the girl you know as Arianora. Likewise, when our Empress passed in an unforeseen accident, we... we...”

“Allow me to take over from here,” Vistalia told him quietly.

Her voice was full of love.

*4*

“When I awoke, word of my death had already spread far and wide. My only option, then, was to serve as Arianora’s attendant, ‘Vis,’ instead,” explained Vis—or rather, Empress Vistalia.

Maxwell’s reign of terror had spanned three centuries. Though she was at least permitted to keep her own identity, Arianora was nonetheless subjected to night after night of inhumane experimentation—and Vistalia was forced to watch from the sidelines. After all, Maxwell had the entire Imperial Family in the palm of his hand.

“I knew about the artificial humans he was creating—and killing—in his laboratory. I knew about the plot to drain mana from Ode. And... I knew that it was he who had taken my soul and placed it into a new vessel after my death, at the request of the Emperor. I witnessed it all as Vis, my daughter’s attendant.”

At this, the Emperor slumped his shoulders and sighed heavily. “It seems we were in the wrong,” he muttered.

Maxwell had the power to fight death itself... and in exchange for access to that power, the Imperial Family turned a blind eye to his petty ambitions and ignored the suffering that was happening right under their noses.

What did they gain from opposing him?

Nothing.

“If our beloved wife claims that Maxwell was a wicked man, erased at the hands of these fine women... then we have no choice but to believe her.”

“It’s the truth. These ladies, the members of Lilium, have saved our family—saved the Empire itself.”

Just then, Arianora rose to her feet. “Um, Empress Vistalia? By ‘family,’ do you mean—”

“Arianora...”

“No, no, I know I’m an impostor! I’m just a puppet pretending to be the princess—”

Vistalia gently held up a hand to stop her. “I was right by your side every step of the way, and I know exactly how hard it was for you. Make no mistake, you are every bit my daughter, as well as our beloved princess. Always have been, always will be.”

“Queen Vistalia...!”

“Heh! Say, would you call me Vis, like you used to?”

“Vis...”

“Alternatively... Let’s see... If possible, I’d like it if you called me Mother.”

“M... Mother...?”

This was something she’d been dying to ask but—until now—never could. Beside her, the Emperor stared down at the floor, clenching his fists.

Tears in her eyes, Arianora ran over and gave Vistalia a big hug. The woman smiled softly, then turned her attention back to Tanya and the others.

“Now then, members of Lilium...”

“Yes?”

Vistalia grinned. “You’ve uncovered the Imperial Family’s secret, haven’t you?”

“Huh?”

Her words didn’t seem to match her radiant smile—nor did they match what came next.

*5*

————

NOTICE

Adventurers’ Guild Rank C Party “Lilium”

By Imperial order, the party listed above shall be promoted to Rank S+ for their exemplary service.

Henceforth, this party shall serve the Imperial Family exclusively.

————

A crowd of Ode citizens buzzed excitedly as they gathered around the bulletin board in the central plaza.

“You’re kidding! Rank S+?!”

“Eeeee! Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, I’m so happy for them!”

“We should celebrate in Lady Tanya’s honor!”

“Heh heh heh... I’ve seen this coming ever since I watched them compete in the Sparring Tournament.”

“Nice try, bro.”

It had been more than ten years since an adventurers’ party was promoted to Rank S+ to serve the Imperial Family officially—and this was the first time in the nation’s history that the party to receive said accolade was staffed entirely by women.

At the bottom of this imperial decree was the following postscript:

————

Reason For Promotion:

For the heroic deeds they performed to resolve a national crisis... and for the unending hope they have inspired in all the little girls out there, dreaming of adventure.

————

*6*

Truth be told, after the audience with the Imperial Family, Tanya was exhausted. Rank S+? Employed directly by the Empire? She could scarcely believe it. But according to the Empress, “Now that you know our secrets, we’ll need to keep you close at hand.”

Clever. It made perfect sense. After all, Lilium could pose a liability to the Imperial Family otherwise. Tanya was starting to think maybe that attendant-turned-Empress had been planning to do this the moment someone got rid of Maxwell. What a woman... I’d better not get on her bad side.

Just then—

“Hey, Tanya?”

“Huh?” Tanya turned to find a young man standing there, dressed in a guard’s uniform, his expression serious. “H-How can I help you?” she asked.

He stared at her for a moment, then seemed to struggle for words. Reflexively, Tanya felt her guard go up. Was he going to make snarky comments about her gender or something? Tell her she didn’t deserve it? That the whole thing was just “affirmative action at work”? Her mind filled with memories of all the horrible things men had said to her over the years.

“L-Listen, um!” the man stammered in a shaky voice.

“Y-Yeah?!” Tanya yelped.

“I... I’m a big fan of your party!!!”

“...What?”

“Your, um, your speech at the Sparring Tournament!” he blurted out, blushing. “For me it was really, um, really touching? And I started thinking, you know, maybe I could change my life and start chasing my dreams! See, ’cause I was born in the slums, so everyone always told me I’d never be able to afford it, so I gave up on it, but after all the stuff you said, I thought, maybe I should really go for it! So after I left the arena, I went and applied with the Imperial Guards, and...!”

Shyly, he extended his hand.

The Sparring Tournament had set the stage for Tanya’s ultimate revenge. No one had believed an all-female party would take first place... but they did. And the speech Tanya had given at the award ceremony had proudly dedicated their victory to “all the little girls out there dreaming of adventure.”

But evidently this speech had inspired more than just little girls.

“So anyway, um, Tanya, if it’s cool with you... would you shake my hand?”

Seeing his bashful smile, Tanya’s heart ached. She had assumed that, because he was male, he would prove to be an asshole—that he wouldn’t relate to her struggle. Ugh... That really wasn’t cool of me. Cursing herself, she stared down at the floor.

Just then, she felt someone poke her in the stomach.

“Hey hey, Tanya!”

“Oh... Hi, Laplace.”

“Times like these, you ought to hold your head up high!”

“...Right.”

Tanya held out her hand and placed it in his. Delighted, the man clasped it and shook it vigorously, like a kid half his age.

Afterwards, right as he was about to return to his post, she called after him.

“Hey!”

“Yes?! What is it, ma’am?!”

“Um... I don’t really know how to say this, but... Thank you for everything you said just now. Really.”

He wasn’t a creep—he was just an ordinary young person like any other. And when the words thank you left her lips, his eyes widened at this show of gratitude from his hero. Then he smiled.

“Likewise! Thank you so much—for talking to me, and for giving me the push I needed to chase my dreams, and for being a total badass in the tournament!”

“Oh... Sure, no problem. I wish you all the best.”

“You too! See ya!”

Grinning from ear to ear, the man jogged off. For a moment, Tanya watched him go in silence... but then Laplace spoke.

“Hey, Tanya? How about you wipe that stupid smile off your face, hmm?”

“Oh, lay off. I can be happy about this, can’t I? This is more important than any rank promotion.”

Gently, Laplace took Tanya’s hand.

Meanwhile, Tanya thought back to younger days back in her hometown. Once upon a time, she, too, had been a little girl dreaming of adventure. And now her words and actions were inspiring others to pursue their own happiness. She had saved a young girl from a fate worse than death. And unbeknownst to her, her beliefs had offered encouragement to a young man who had let others convince him he was too poor to accomplish his goals.

Male or female, it doesn’t matter. The circumstances of your birth should never deter you from following your heart.

“Hey, Laplace?”

“What is it, Tanya?”

“This is the happiest I’ve ever been in my whole life.”

As she held Laplace’s hand with her left hand, she stared down at her right—the hand the man had shaken earlier: it was the sweatiest handshake she had ever experienced.

Going forward, she would do whatever it took to fight against discrimination. For the little girls out there, dreaming of adventure. And for the little boys, too, who dreamed of becoming Healers. But most of all—

“Oui, oui. I could say the same myself, Tanya.”

—for her trusty partner who had endured 300 years of injustice to stand here with her today, her revenge fulfilled.

“Thank you, Laplace.”

I love you.