CHAPTER 6

A HOLIDAY FOR TWO

“Hi, Julis. I hope I didn’t keep you waiting too…long…”

“No, I just got here myself. I should commend you for being so punctual—hmm? Why is your mouth open like that? You already have a dopey face. Don’t make it worse.”

It was a clear, bright Sunday. Ayato reached the front gate of the school, where they had agreed to meet up, and found himself frozen at the sight of Julis.

She was wearing a cute black-and-pink dress, rather short, with frilled over-the-knee socks covering her slender legs up to her thighs. Holding a parasol in her hand, she looked girlish—a total one-eighty from the image she cultivated at school.

Ayato had known from the beginning that Julis was a beautiful girl, but because she usually carried herself so fiercely, he found himself that much more conscious of her present appearance.

“Do I have something on my face?”

“Oh—uh—sorry! No, it’s just that…you look different from usual.”

“Wh… I do?”

“Yeah. But you look good.”

“Huh? Sh-shut up! Are you trying to make me self-conscious?” Julis turned her face away, leaving him with a full view of her blushing cheek. “Th-these are just things I had from home. It’s not as if I picked it out special for you…”

She was mumbling with a complicated expression, something between embarrassed and annoyed. Then, looking at Ayato again, she said curiously, “You, on the other hand… Maybe there’s a better way to put this, but you don’t look much better in your own clothes.”

“Yeah, I don’t have a lot to work with. These are pretty old.” Ayato was dressed very casually in a pair of jeans and a three-quarter-sleeve shirt over a T-shirt.

“Well, it’s not that you look bad, but… Hold on.”

“Huh?”

Julis leaned in to put her face close to Ayato’s, then started to pat his hair.

“Whoa! Wh-what is it?”

“You’re full of cowlicks! I mean, come on. You’re not a little kid. You could at least comb your hair before you go outside,” Julis scolded, but then giggled at him, her face open and innocent. Meanwhile, Ayato’s heart beat faster with every little thing she did.

“All right, let’s get going!” Julis led the way in high spirits, whether or not she was aware of his state of mind.

The city of Asterisk was divided into the central district and the outer residential district. A monorail loop line ran through the outer district, connecting the harbor block, the residential area, and the six schools. The main mode of transportation in the central district was a separate subway system. This setup was reportedly intended to prevent duels between students from interfering with public transportation.

Julis and Ayato were in the central district, in front of the main stage of the Festa.

“This is the main stage, the largest stage in Asterisk. All of the championship matches of the Festa take place here,” Julis explained, gesturing to the enormous domed structure.

It had a capacity of approximately one hundred thousand. It hosted sellout crowds throughout every Festa tournament. Even now, tourists could be seen here and there taking pictures.

“The design is said to be inspired by the Colosseum of Rome, but it’s a different beast altogether,” she went on. “There are three other large stages and seven medium-sized stages. And countless smaller outdoor stages.”

“Wow, that’s a lot.”

“Inside the city, you’re supposed to use the stages for duels. But…not many people actually do.”

“So there are duels in the streets?”

“Yes.”

“That has to be pretty dangerous, right?” If Julis were to launch attacks like she had done the other morning, Ayato thought, entire blocks would be scorched.

“People who live here know the risks. So do the tourists—no one enters Asterisk without signing a waiver first. And any damages to stores and residences are compensated.”

“So anything goes, huh? I still don’t get why everyone wants to come here.”

“From a business perspective, having a store in Asterisk is a status symbol and a way to advertise your brand. So they deal with it. There are even some events where the entire central district becomes the stage.”

“I wouldn’t want to live in a place like this.”

“Neither would I,” Julis said with a sarcastic smile. “Well? What do you want to do now? Do you want to look around here some more?”

“No, I think I’m set here.”

“Hmm. I could take you to the administrative area to see the therapy center. It employs Stregas and Dantes with healing powers, and that’s where you end up if you get seriously hurt at the Festa. Although if it’s something like a broken bone, they’ll send you off for more conventional treatment.”

Those with healing abilities were extremely rare, which led to an agreement to gather them in one healing center, so that students of any school could have equal access to care. Because of the limited capacity, however, only patients with life-threatening or debilitating injuries were triaged to the healers.

“Let’s see…what else?” Julis mused. “Maybe I should show you the redevelopment area. There’s some urban blight that way, bad neighborhoods, but you should know where they are so you don’t wander in by accident.”

Ayato had heard that the bad neighborhoods were populated with students who were forced to leave the schools for whatever reason and Genestella criminals taking refuge inside the extraterritorial city. It was unsettling, but probably inevitable, that a city with this many people should have a darker side.

“Oh yeah,” he said. “Saya told me that she went shopping and got lost in a shady-looking part. She said there were a lot of run-down buildings and shuttered shops.”

“That would be the redevelopment area. It would make more sense to go to the commercial area to shop… How did she end up there?”

“Saya has absolutely no sense of direction.”

Julis gave him a teasing smirk. “You’re one to talk. You have quite a habit of wandering into the strangest places.”

Caught out, he flinched. There was no arguing with the truth. Now that she mentioned it, Ayato could recall several occasions when he and Saya had gotten lost together as children.

“So, next up…” Julis opened an air-window to consult a map.

“Hey, Julis? I really appreciate the tour. But do you want to get lunch soon?” Ayato suggested. The hour, as well as his stomach, indicated that it was a good time for lunch.

“Well… I suppose it is about that time…” Julis didn’t seem too enthusiastic.

“Is something the matter?”

“No, er, it’s just… Lunch sounds fine, but I’m not sure…where to go.”

“Aren’t there lots of places to eat in the commercial area? Oh, or is everything there superexpensive?” Ayato could imagine that the restaurants there made a business practice of overcharging tourists. But there had to be reasonably priced places as well, considering all the schools.

“No, that’s not it. Oh, how do I say this? I’m really sorry!” Julis bobbed her head in apology. “I don’t really, um— Actually, I almost never go to the commercial area. So I have no idea where I should take you to eat.”

“Oh, okay…”

“I’m such a useless guide… Oh, but I did do some research on the Net! Here!” Julis took out her phone and displayed a list, apparently from a review site.

Ayato’s jaw dropped as he looked at it. Everything on the list was a top-notch gourmet restaurant. These were not places that simply gouged tourists. The prices were two digits longer than the ordinary lunch budget. In any case, Ayato doubted that they could sit down in any of these restaurants without a reservation.

“Um, I think those might be a bit much…”

“I—I’m fully aware that these aren’t ordinary prices! But these were the only places I had heard of. I wouldn’t feel comfortable taking you somewhere I don’t know, even if it did have good reviews…”

Indeed, every restaurant on the list was universally renowned—three stars or an equivalent reputation.

“That’s okay,” Ayato told her with a laugh. “Let’s just walk around a bit and see what looks good.”

“Is—is that all right?”

“If it’s okay with you.”

“I’m fine. It’s just…you’re not upset?” she asked nervously.

“Why would I be?” Ayato said, surprised.

“But…it was so negligent of me.”

Julis sounded entirely sincere. Is there anything she doesn’t take so seriously? he thought.

“I keep wondering, doesn’t it make you tired, being so overly conscientious all the time?”

“Well, that’s just the way I am, so there’s not much I can do about it!” She went sullen, turning away in a huff.

“I’m just worried that you’ll get burned out if you keep taking responsibility for everything.”

“I like having that kind of weight on my shoulders. That’s how I live my life. If you ask me, you’re the one to worry about. You’re like a cloud, floating and impossible to pin down. Why don’t you take things more seriously? You’d feel more grounded.”

She said the words casually enough, but they stung.

“Uh…” Ayato ham-fistedly changed the subject. “Anyway, should we go over to the commercial area?”

Julis didn’t bother to reply aloud. They headed for the most lively part of the commercial area, Main Street.

“Wow, it’s packed here.”

“Yes. It is the weekend, after all.” The neat stone-tiled street overflowed with students—none of them in uniform, but they all wore their school crests, making their status clear. In Asterisk, students were required to wear their crests at all times.

No vehicle traffic was allowed inside the commercial area except at certain hours, so there were only pedestrians to be seen in the street. All sorts of shops were lined up on either side, but the stretch that they were in boasted a high concentration dealing in food and drinks. And the prices advertised on the signs were perfectly reasonable.

“Okay, should we pick something around here?” Ayato turned around to ask Julis—but she wasn’t there. “Huh?”

He looked every which way and finally saw her dazzling rose-colored hair a little bit back the way he had come.

“You had me worried. You disappeared all of a sudden,” he told her, relieved.

Julis intently turned toward him and asked, “Can we have lunch here?”

“Here…?”

The shop Julis was looking at was a burger franchise. Like the restaurants she had looked up ahead of time, it was also universally well-known, but for an entirely different reason and with entirely different prices.

“It’s fine with me…but this is really what you want?” said Ayato.

“Yes! I want to eat here!”

At first he wondered whether she chose this place out of aristocratic curiosity, but from the routine way she ordered and paid, it wasn’t a curiosity for her. Ayato asked for a burger and fries with a medium cola—a rather standard order—and the two of them sat down at a patio table.

“This isn’t the first time I’ve asked you this…but are you really a princess?”

“What do you mean?” She even bit into her burger like a regular. But Ayato had to admit that the way she held it in both hands was adorable.

“Well, princesses don’t usually eat at fast-food chains, do they?”

“That’s a stereotype. You have an actual counterexample sitting in front of you. Accept the facts.”

“Well, sure. But…” Ayato leaned back in his seat as he munched on a french fry. It tasted the same as any french fry he’d had since he was little, as any french fry the world over. The constancy of globalization. There was something comforting in that.

“I learned about this place from my friends,” Julis said softly after a while, as if recalling a fond memory.

“Friends?”

“I do have some, you know. Well, not here—in my country.”

Then, Ayato made the connection. “Oh, the letter you were holding the other day—was that from your friends?”

“Urk!?” Julis appeared to choke on her bite of burger. She thumped at her chest as her face turned blue. Hacking, she managed to say, “H-how did you—!?”

“You really are easy to read, Julis.”

Now flushing bright red, she turned away from him.

Turning red and blue and red again—what a busy life, Ayato thought.

“Y-you know, this place didn’t come up on any of the review sites. Why is that?”

“Well, no one would bother with a place like this.”

“Why not? The food is so good,” said Julis, genuinely mystified.

Yup, there is something off about her, he thought.

“By the way—can we talk about something serious for a second?” Ayato asked, after she had finished her burger.

“Hmm? What is it?” Julis straightened and looked at him.

“It’s about when you were attacked…” Ayato relayed to Julis what Claudia had told him earlier, mostly verbatim. Claudia had not asked him to keep the matter secret, and he thought that having the information would help Julis defend herself.

He left out the part about how he had been asked to help her. He already knew how heartily she would object.

Julis sipped on her cola through a straw as she listened. “Yes, this all sounds plausible. A scheme by another school.” She nodded, looking quite unfazed. “I must be their last target. That would explain why they let themselves be seen as they tried to finish me off.”

“So, I was thinking maybe you might not want to go out alone or get involved in duels for a while…”

“That’s absurd. Why should I have to act differently because of these dirty cowards?”

“…You’re right.” I knew she’d say that.

“I choose my own path. And my will is mine alone.”

“Heh. So valiant, as usual.” An enormous figure approached from behind her.

“Hello, Lester,” she said bitingly without turning around. “Eavesdropping? Such interesting hobbies you have.”

Ayato looked up at Lester in surprise. Running into each other on Sunday, off campus and all—for better or worse, Lester and Julis really did seem to have a connection.

“As if I wanted to listen to you,” Lester scoffed. “I just happened to hear you talking.” Behind him stood the two usual sidekicks. “Heard about you getting attacked by those mystery men. I think you’ve been pissing off too many people.”

“I’ve done nothing to anger anyone,” Julis replied with a straight face.

Lester, in turn, looked astounded. “That. You know that attitude is what’s getting you so many enemies?”

“No, I don’t. I haven’t done anything wrong. If that earns enemies, then I’ll take them all on.”

“Hah. You talk big,” said Lester. “Why don’t you back up that confidence of yours right now?”

“How many times do I have to say it to get through to that mush you call a brain? I’m not interested in facing you again.”

“Just shut up and fight me!” Lester slammed the table so hard that Ayato thought it might snap in two. The patio shook with the noise of the impact, then went silent as conversations ceased.

“L-Lester! You can’t force someone to duel in a place like this!”

“He’s right, Lester! If you make a scene here, the city guard will be all over us.”

Silas and Randy tried desperately to calm him down. Lester didn’t seem to hear them.

“Maybe you should back off,” said Ayato.

“You keep your mouth shut,” Lester replied without looking at him.

“I can’t do that. Haven’t you heard about how Julis was attacked the other day?”

“So, what’s your point?”

“If you pick a fight with Julis here and now, everyone will think you’re no different from the ones who attacked her.”

That was more than Lester would stand to hear. Now he turned to Ayato to shout at him. “Take that back! You’re telling me that I’m the same as those sneaking cowards!?” He grabbed Ayato by the collar, dragging him to his feet. “Then maybe I should crush you first.”

“Nope. Sorry, but I don’t feel like dueling you, either.”

“What?”

“I have no reason to accept.”

Lester shoved Ayato away, his face full of seething rage, then brought his fist down on the table. This time, the unlucky table did split in two. “You call me a coward and then refuse to fight me? You spineless brat!”

“Call me what you want.” Ayato coolly shrugged it off.

“Why, you…!”

“Lester, c-calm down! Everyone knows how strong you are! You always fight everyone fair and square. He’s so spineless he doesn’t know what he’s talking about!”

As Lester raised his fist, Randy held him back in a panic. “Th-that’s right! You’d never pull a cheap trick like ambushing someone in the middle of a duel—everyone knows that!” Silas anxiously joined in.

Lester growled, glaring at Ayato with barely contained fury. Finally he spun on his heels and wordlessly stalked away.

“Whew…” Ayato brushed at his forehead.

Julis smirked at him. “You really are a tricky one.”

“Whatever do you mean?” said Ayato, all innocence.

“Never mind. More importantly…” Her smirk changed to a faint, strained smile and she wiped his lips with a paper napkin. “You had ketchup on your face. I really don’t know about you.”

The sun was sinking when Julis brought the tour to a close.

“Thank you, Julis. I learned a lot, and it was a lot of fun.”

“Well… I hate to repeat myself, but I’m only repaying my debt. No need to thank me.”

The two walked together through the twilit streets, meandering toward the subway station. Then they noticed some commotion near the entrance.

“Huh? What could that be?”

They approached to find a group of students in a heated argument, about a dozen yelling and jeering at each other. There were curious spectators, too, but most people hurried past, perfectly happy to stay out of it.

“They’re from Le Wolfe,” Julis muttered. “Behaving like fools, as usual.”

The Le Wolfe Black Institute had a reputation for being the most bellicose of the six schools. The culture there valued victory above all else, to the point that school rules and regulations were lax to nonexistent. This resulted in many students who exhibited markedly poor conduct, and the numbers proved it: The majority of dropouts living in the slums were former Le Wolfe students.

“It looks like there are two sides arguing…,” said Ayato. “Ooh, it just got physical.”

A student who looked like the leader of one of the groups shoved another student, prompting both sides to draw their weapons. In the blink of an eye, the altercation had escalated to a brawl.

“This is bad. We’ve been set up.”

“Huh?” Just as Ayato was about to ask Julis what she meant, a student holding a Lux knife lunged at them.

“Whoa!” Ayato managed to evade with a light step—but it had clearly been meant for him. The attacker was already disappearing amid the skirmish.

Meanwhile, Ayato and Julis suddenly found themselves surrounded by fighting Le Wolfe students.

“This is a trick that those idiots at Le Wolfe use to attack someone in the streets. They surround the target during a brawl and rough them up, and then simply pretend that the target got mixed up by chance. I had heard about it, but this is the first time I’ve gotten pulled in,” Julis explained while repelling several attackers.

So that argument they were having was all an act. Ayato looked around and saw that the students clashing swords seemed to be just going through the motions. They intermittently threw sharp glances toward himself and Julis as if looking for a chance to attack. “They sure go through a lot of trouble…”

“Both sides probably went through the procedure for proper duels,” said Julis. “They’ll have a defense even if they get rounded up by the city guard.”

They would still be punished in that case, but apparently, the administration was often forgiving where duels were involved.

“Does this mean that the people after you are from Le Wolfe?” Ayato asked.

“Not necessarily. Goons like these will do almost anything for a little cash. Oop!” As she dodged a Lux arrow, Julis smiled mischievously. “Besides, they’re all weaklings.”

“Uh…so what should we do?” Ayato could guess what she would say but asked anyway.

“Do I need to tell you? This is obviously a self-defense situation. So we’ll crush them and squeeze some answers out of them.”

“I’m not sure that’s the best idea…” The brawl itself was probably a trick to get Julis’s guard down. There could be another sniper aiming as they spoke.

“Don’t worry. I can roast them whole and still look out for an ambush.” Flames rose up around Julis.

“Maybe you could let them off with just medium rare?” Ayato halfheartedly suggested.

The Le Wolfe students turned out to be poor fighters. The vast majority of them lay on the ground, plumes of smoke rising.

A few of them had tried to run, and from their shouts of dismay (“That’s the Glühen Rose!” “This wasn’t part of the deal!”), it was clear that they hadn’t even known who they were attacking.

“Hmph. Hardly even a warm-up.” Julis combed her fingers through her hair and ignored the heaps of bodies to glare viciously at Ayato. “But you—what was that all about?”

“Wh-what was what now?”

“What was that pathetic fight you put up!? That was really all you could do against them!?”

Julis had reason to be angry. She was the one who had defeated most of the goons, while it was all Ayato could do to evade the relentless attacks flying at him from every direction. Even if none of them were particularly skilled, they presented enough problems as a group surrounding him.

“Well, yeah. As I am now, that’s the best I can do.”

Julis stared at him dubiously and finally let out a long sigh. “Apparently, I overestimated you.”

The disappointment in her voice was unmistakable. Ayato could only smile apologetically.

“Forget it. Right now, we need to get some answers out of them.”

Julis examined several of the Le Wolfe students on the ground, then yanked up one with a Mohawk. Ayato remembered that he was the leader of one of the squabbling groups.

“You. How long are you going to pretend to be unconscious? Wake up. Or I’ll torch this freakish haircut of yours right to the scalp.” The threat worked splendidly, as the student with the Mohawk snapped his eyes open with a frightened yelp.

“I want nice, clear answers. Who hired you?”

“I—I don’t know anything! We just got told to rough you guys up a little! He didn’t even say why!”

“What did he look like?”

“A huge, tall dude wearing all black. I didn’t see his face!”

“Did you recognize his voice?”

“His v-voice? No, I dunno.”

“You mean it was a voice you didn’t know?”

“No, the dude didn’t say a word. The job was written out on a piece of paper that was with the cash.”

“A piece of paper…? What else did it say?”

“That this was an advance and they’d pay the rest after they confirmed the job was done.”

“Confirm…” As Julis seemed lost in thought, the student with the Mohawk suddenly opened his eyes wide.

“H-him! It was him! He hired us to do this!”

Just as Ayato and Julis turned to look, the shadow fled into the alleys. They only caught a glimpse, but there was no mistake—it was a large male clad in black.

“Stop!” Julis ran after the shadow.

“Julis, don’t! It might be a trap!” Ayato called.

She turned to glance back at him, but did not give up her pursuit. She must be furious to act so recklessly. Which was precisely the opening her attackers were hoping for.

“What—!?” The large figure had been waiting for Julis in the alley and now swung his enormous battle-ax at her.

Julis leaped aside to dodge the blow, only to be attacked by another man clad in black. This one held a Lux assault rifle. As bullets of light rained down on her, she evaded the barrage by rolling on the ground. Her reflexes were nothing short of astonishing.

I can make it!

Just as Ayato was about to jump in between Julis and the second attacker, a shadow on a rooftop caught the corner of his eye. One more black-clad man stood atop the building, aiming a Lux crossbow.

A third one—!

The target of the next attack was not Julis, but Ayato. The arrow of light sliced through the wind toward Ayato. A perfectly timed sniper shot.

Deciding that he couldn’t dodge it, he made a quicker move and drew his Lux activator to use as a shield. The exterior shattered, fragments piercing his clothes. Luckily for him, the core stopped the arrow, but the activator was probably unusable now.

As he breathed a sigh of relief, Ayato marveled at the attackers’ skill in finding just the right instant to strike. These people must be of stunningly bad character.

“Hey! Are you all right!?” Julis ran to him, looking quite stern.

“Barely. My clothes are ruined, though.” Ayato smiled wryly at her and looked around to find that the attackers were already gone. They were also experts at fleeing the scene of the crime.

The Le Wolfe students who had been sprawled on the ground until moments ago were also scattering in clusters.

“The city guard will be here any second now,” said Julis. We should get out of here, too.”

“Are you sure?”

“We’ve done nothing they could hold us for, but I don’t want to have to explain everything, either. Besides, we finally have a clue. I’m not about to let the cops have all the fun with it.” Her eyes burned with rage as she spoke. “This is too much. I won’t be satisfied unless I settle the score with my own hands.”

“You’re their target. Maybe…you could be a little careful?”

Julis replied with a “hmph,” and Ayato wondered if he should take that for acquiescence.

In any case, he probably had to report this to Claudia…

“By the way, are you free after this?” she said.

“Huh? I guess I don’t have any plans…”

In the settling dusk, Julis stared at Ayato at length as if to inspect him. “Then come to my room.”

“Huh…?”

Still, he couldn’t exactly stride into the girls’ dormitory through the front gate.

“Hi, it’s me… Man, I really hate how I’m getting used to this.” Once again, here he was coming into Julis’s room through the window.

Even if he hadn’t known it the first time, this was Ayato’s third time coming into the dorm this way. It sent a shiver down his spine to think what the dormitory watch might do to him if they found out.

“Oh, you’re here. Sorry, just give me a few more seconds.” Julis, having gone home ahead of him, was rummaging for something in a corner.

Ayato sat down on the windowsill and looked around the room, noting its considerable size. It must have been a perk of being a Page One, like Claudia’s room was.

The atmosphere of Julis’s room, however, was markedly different. What stood out here was the number of plants. With rows of pots and planters, it looked like a small botanical garden, but carefully arranged so that one could still walk around the room unimpeded. Some of the plants were flowering beautifully, and just looking at them was calming.

“The last time I was here, I didn’t really get to take in the surroundings,” Ayato thought aloud. And if he tried to remember, too many of the images that came up were supple and fair… The way she’d looked that morning…

“There, I found it.”

“Augh! S-sorry!”

“Why are you apologizing?” Julis tilted her head at him.

“Oh, uh, nothing… So why did you want me here?” He wasn’t necessarily trying to change the subject—or so he tried to tell himself. It was a legitimate question.

There was still some time until lights-out, but the sun was long gone from the sky. Just like with Claudia the other night, Ayato found that being invited to a girl’s room at this hour was something of a strain on his mental health.

“Right. Let’s get this over with. Take off your clothes.”

“Wha—!?” Ayato flailed backward and almost fell from the window. “Um, uh—J-ju-ju-Julis?”

“Why are you so upset? Just hurry up and—” In the middle of her sentence, Julis realized the reason for his consternation, and her face steadily flushed into bright red. “Y-you idiot! Wh-wh-what did you think I meant? I’m only offering to mend your ripped clothes!”

“Clothes…?” Ayato remembered that his clothes were torn from that attack outside the subway station. “Oh—mend them? You can sew, Julis?”

“I’m not the best there is, but I can manage,” she replied sullenly. “I bear some responsibility for what happened. I don’t want to incur any more debts to you.”

“Well, if you’re offering…okay.” Ayato obediently removed his shirt and handed it to her.

Julis threaded the needle from her sewing set and began to stab it through the fabric with unsteady hands. She did seem a little clumsy, but she wasn’t a complete novice, either.

“Let me guess… Did you learn that from your friends, too?”

“Good guess.” Julis nodded without looking up as she concentrated on the needle.

“I had a feeling.” Ayato watched her sew for a while, then resumed looking around the room anew once he saw that he was worrying too much about her.

Unlike Claudia’s place, Julis’s was a studio, but that single room was larger than either of Claudia’s rooms, tidily kept and neatly organized. Next to the bed was a sturdy desk, with a rose in a small vase on the corner, and beside that a photograph—a rarity these days.

Curious, Ayato went for a closer look. It showed a woman who looked like a nun with children of varying ages. Judging from their appearance, they did not seem very well-off.

There was one child, however, who stood out from the others. She was dressed just as plainly as the rest of the children, but even from a photograph, the difference in upbringing was clear. She looked carefree, smiling just as happily as the other children—with her dazzling rose-colored hair.

“Hey, Julis. Are…these kids your friends?”

“Hmm…? Hey! Did I say you could go through my things!?” Julis rushed toward him, flustered, and snatched the picture from his hand.

“The girl in the middle… That’s you, right?”

Julis shot him a piercing glare, then let out a sigh and placed the photograph back on the desk.

“Yes. You’re right, this is a picture of my friends,” she said, then returned to her seat to finish sewing. “It might be hard to imagine, but I was a tomboy growing up…”

“Hard to imagine?” Wait, a tomboy growing up? Then, what is she now?

“You have something to say?”

“Not at all. Please continue.”

“Hmph. Anyway, I would often sneak out of the palace as a child. It was too stifling, I guess. My family has royal blood, but not a direct line of descent. When the monarchy was reestablished, there were very few bloodlines left and our family was chosen for the throne.” Her needle never paused as she went on. “But one day, I went farther than usual and I got lost. I wandered for some time and eventually ended up in a bad part of town. Lieseltania is a relatively safe country, but you can imagine what might happen to an affluent-looking child drifting by herself in a place like that.”

“How developed were your powers then?” Ayato asked.

“Enough to make a little flame like a lighter. Not very useful. And even with more of my power, I still would have been helpless, never having been in a fight before. A mean bunch spotted me and herded me into an alley. I couldn’t do anything—I was just crying. Then, just in time, they came and saved me. Can you imagine how I felt? Those girls were heroes to me.” She spoke with a fierce admiration that clearly hadn’t dimmed since that day.

“After I made my way back to the palace, I found out that they lived in an orphanage in the slums. And I would keep sneaking out of the palace to follow them around. They saw me as a nuisance at first, but I was so stubborn that somehow we ended up becoming friends.” Now her voice was shaded with fond reminiscence.

“Did those girls know you were a princess?”

“No, I hid it from them at the time. But the nuns must have known.”

“What about your family?”

“Everyone around me tried like mad to stop me. But by that time, my father and mother were already dead, and I didn’t care what the others said.”

“Wha…?” Ayato faltered.

“Hmm? Oh, you didn’t know. The current king of Lieseltania is my brother. The previous rulers were my parents. But I don’t remember them very well.”

“I… I didn’t know…” Ayato could hardly remember his mother, either, and he knew firsthand that there was nothing much anyone else could say about those things.

“What surprised me when I looked it up was that their orphanage was built by a charitable foundation that my mother started. So I couldn’t help but feel a connection.” With that, Julis’s hands suddenly fell idle. “But that charity no longer exists. There are more orphans every year, and it’s only getting harder to keep the orphanage running. That’s why I came here. This time, I have to save them—I have to protect them. It’s sad, but the thing that those children need the most right now is money.”

“But wait…”

“Let me stop you right there. No one asked me to do this. I’m doing it out of my own free will and for myself. I’m only doing the thing I want to do at this moment,” Julis declared with her forthright gaze.

Ayato believed it wholeheartedly. This was all her idea, hers alone. That’s the sort of person she is.

But that wasn’t the question on his mind. “No, I mean… Aren’t there plenty of other ways?”

“Ways for what?”

“You know…to do something about the money. Aren’t you the princess, after all?”

Julis shrugged her shoulders and scoffed. “As if the country has any money for me to spend. The allowances for the royal family are drawn from a budget voted on by the parliament. Lieseltania is nothing but a puppet of the IEFs. You think they’d allow a social welfare project without outlook for a penny of profit? That’s why my mother’s foundation was shut down in the first place. And my country’s people never raised a word of protest.”

The integrated enterprise foundations put economic activity above all else, and they did not hesitate to alter the very ethical fabric of society to suit their goals. Over time, they would massage public opinion and gradually change culture in their favor. Ayato was now standing in the concrete embodiment of that effort—the city of Asterisk.

“There is money to spend on me, but none that I can spend. So, the only thing I can do is to earn it. Luckily for me, I have the talents of a Strega. And the title of a princess must have worked in my favor when I applied. What an ideal marketing package I make.” She made a low, bitter laugh. “This worthless, despicable city. They have students fight each other and the world goes mad over it. Greed swirls in this place, swallowing up everything and fattening itself. It’s hideous and it only keeps getting bigger. But that’s exactly why this city lies closest to every possible desire. This is where I will make my wish come true. That’s my reason to fight.”

Julis spread out Ayato’s shirt with a snap. It was…well, it was repaired enough to be functional, even if the result was not particularly attractive.

“There!” she announced. “Now take this and go home.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

“We owe each other nothing now.”

“Yes, I know.”

Not a good place to overstay my welcome, Ayato thought—and then noticed a neatly folded handkerchief on the corner of the table. That little handkerchief had been the catalyst for their meeting. But now he was getting an inkling of its significance.

Julis noticed what he was looking at and smiled, gently picking it up. “The girls from the orphanage gave this to me for my birthday. Everyone helped embroider it. The stitches that look the worst are by my best friend.”

That person must be really important to her, he thought.

“It’s my greatest treasure,” she said with a shy smile, then set the handkerchief back down.

The sight stirred a warmth in Ayato’s chest—and at the same time a dull pain.

Someone important. Something to protect.

…The thing that I have to do.

“Well, see you tomorrow.” He pulled his shirt on, waved good-bye, and leaped down from the window.

The whisper of a thought darted through his mind. So that’s a reason to fight…