Epilogue

They were in a sheer-white field as far as the eye could see.

It was the purest island in all the world, without a single scent in the air, and devoid of any life.

The entire ground was made up of nothing but white crystals, which would never decompose.

“I’m sorry.”

For some reason, after coming this far together, her traveling companion apologized.

Unable to stand any longer, she had fallen forward, though there was no scent of blood.

“I thought I could save you at the very least… But I should’ve known I couldn’t outsmart Master.”

Akari tried to use her powers to Regress time, but the girl’s wounds would not heal. Slowly, starting with her fingertips, the girl began to fall apart.

Her wounds were turning her body into sand.

Even so, Akari kept invoking her power. It was the only technique she knew how to use.

There was nothing else she could do for her.

“I’m sorry for deceiving you.”

She had deceived her. Akari had been deceived.

Upon hearing this, she felt incredibly sad.

At first, she couldn’t open her heart to this girl. She was so frightened by arriving in an unknown world that even when this girl reached out a hand to her, she didn’t know how to respond, and she always stayed on the defensive. She was so caught up in thoughts of Japan that she didn’t pay attention to the world she was in now.

“I was trying to kill you, you know.”

“Then why?!”

Their journey together had often been hard, but lately, it had also been fun.

The girl kept talking to Akari despite her defensive stance, kept smiling at her. Eventually, she found herself smiling back.

Maybe this world wasn’t so bad after all.

When they were together, Akari found herself thinking that, just a little. It was a small confession for now, but she thought it might slowly grow over time, until perhaps one day being in this world with this girl would feel normal.

But she had been deceived.

That was terribly sad.

But if anything…

“You should’ve just done it, then, if that’s the case. You should’ve just killed me! Why would you go and do something like this instead…?!”

“Not a chance. This was the first time I thought… The first time I knew…”

As Akari’s tears dripped onto the salt, the other girl gave an almost satisfied smile.

“…about friendship.”

Her words were soft and affectionate.

“Ah, I should apologize to Momo… I’ve put that girl through so much hardship… I’d like to save her, at the end, but…”

A little distance away, a girl whose hair was tied up in ribbons was wrestling a woman with dark-red hair.

She was screaming and crying shamelessly, swinging her fist at the priestess with the frightening blood-colored hair.

This girl’s arm, too, had already turned into salt, crumbling away. It was eating into her body at her shoulder, but she didn’t even spare it a glance, continuing to fight as she cried.

“I guess that’s impossible, too. I never managed to accomplish a single thing in my life.”

Now injured beyond all hope of recovery, the girl closed her eyes and smiled quietly.

“But I suppose it’s a fitting way for me to die.”

With that, the girl’s entire body turned to salt.

“Aaah…”

When Akari touched her, her brittle body fell apart. It crumbled into whiteness, merging into the salty ground.

“Waaaah… Aaaaaaah.”

“Hah. Dead, is she?” The red-haired priestess spoke.

It seemed that the battle was over. Akari looked around for the girl with the fluffy pigtails, but her body had already become one with the surrounding sand and was nowhere to be seen.

All that remained was the ribbons she’d defended to her last breath, fluttering in the air.

“Bah-ha-ha. I had rather high hopes for those two…but in the end, I’m the only one left. Well, that’s fine.”

The red-haired priestess, whose name Akari didn’t even know, raised her white sword.

It was ivory, delicate, and more terrifying than anything else in this world: the Sword of Salt.

As she watched the blade close in on her, with no way to defend herself, Akari wished from the depths of her soul.

If it was going to end like this… With that girl gone and her assistant dead and Akari herself being murdered by some unknown priestess…

“Now, screwup of Time.”

Then Akari wished she could have at least been killed by her—by Menou—instead.

Just as the Sword of Salt was about to touch her—Akari’s heartfelt wish, her desire, overtook her soul completely.

When she woke, Menou was peering into Akari’s face.

“Oh, you actually woke up on your own today. Did you remember me telling you yesterday that we had to be up early this morning?”

She must have been about to try to wake Akari. Menou nodded, looking impressed.

Akari sat up and rubbed her bleary eyes, blinking a few times. Dragging herself out of bed, she silently pulled Menou into a hug.

“…What is it? Are you still half-asleep?”

“I dunno.”

Menou looked perplexed, unsure how to react to Akari suddenly embracing her first thing in the morning.

Akari couldn’t blame her for being confused, but she didn’t want to let go.

She felt like she’d been having a strange dream. Though she couldn’t remember its contents, she suspected it was terribly sad.

She wasn’t sure if the dream was the reason, but she was so happy that Menou was alive, she couldn’t help herself.

As Akari squeezed her soft body and savored its warmth, its firmness that didn’t crumble under her touch, it all felt terribly priceless to her.

“I dunno, but I really love you, Menou.”

For some reason, she felt like she had to convey those feelings—loud and clear this time, without holding back.

“…Er, thank you?”

Menou tilted her head, obviously confused.

Three days had passed since the disastrous incident.

The veritable symbols of this proud city—the former royal castle and the cathedral—had been destroyed in the span of a day.

Officially, the story was that a dragon and a demon from the Wild Frontier had invaded from belowground, and the Princess Knight Ashuna, who was visiting the city, defeated them, along with a nameless priestess.

It made sense, considering the circumstances.

It was bad enough that the top brass of the Faust and the Noblesse were connected with a Commons terrorist group. Most of all, they couldn’t reveal the archbishop’s deviant activities to the public. They kept attention on only the most visibly evident disasters and announced that Archbishop Orwell had been killed in the battle.

The death of this great holy woman was widely mourned.

The mystery of the quiet disappearances of young women officially remained unsolved—but it was promised that no more incidents would occur at the hands of the same perpetrators.

Menou and company were placed under house arrest while the aftermath was dealt with, but after three days, they were finally allowed to depart, so they had prepared accordingly.

After waking Akari, Menou slipped out to visit the hotel where Momo was staying.

Originally, Menou was supposed to leave the nation’s borders alone; but since she hadn’t been able to kill Akari in Garm, she had no choice but to bring her along on the journey, changing their plans significantly.

She needed to have a meeting with Momo about these plans, but in the past three days, Momo hadn’t shown up once, despite her usual habit of unsolicited visitations. Thus, Menou went to see her herself.

Menou knocked three times. There was no response, but she sensed a presence inside.

She put her hand on the doorknob and pushed gently. Apparently unlocked, the door opened easily.

“Momo? I’m coming in.”

Though concerned by the lack of response, Menou entered the room.

Momo was sewing fervently, in totally silent concentration. She didn’t even seem to notice Menou’s arrival.

Menou walked over and gently tapped her shoulder.

“Momo?”

“…Ah.”

Finally, a reaction. Looking up with a little gasp, Momo stiffened when she saw Menou. Strangely enough, there was even a note of fear in her eyes.

“D-darling…”

“Yes, that’s right. Remember me? …What’s the matter?”

Momo seemed uncharacteristically nervous. Taken aback by her strange state, Menou then noticed the biggest change of all.

She had obviously been awake for a while, yet Momo wasn’t wearing her signature pigtails.

“I-I’m sorry. The ribbons you gave me…”

With her fluffy hair hanging loose, Momo bit her lip and continued in a whisper.

“…Th-they got…burned.”

Her voice trembling as if she might cry at any moment, she looked down at the charred remains of the ribbons.

Evidently, to Momo, playing a part in the destruction of the former royal castle and bringing down the cathedral’s bell tower were insignificant matters compared to the loss of her ribbons.

“I—I thought…I’d try to fix it…but it’s impossible…”

Her faltering explanation was a far cry from the usual lilting tone with which she glossed over things.

She appeared to be trying to connect the charred remains of the ribbons with thread, but since the majority of the length had been incinerated to nothing, it was clearly impossible.

She trembled, as if she’d committed a horrible sin.

“Momo, sit over here.”

“A-all right…”

Even in her uncharacteristic state, Momo obeyed Menou immediately.

Once her assistant sat in the chair, Menou stood behind her and took out the two scrunchies she’d made when she went sightseeing. Clearly, Momo hadn’t been taking very good care of her hair the past few days. Gently taking her assistant’s soft, messy locks into her hands, Menou brushed out Momo’s hair and arranged it into pigtails.

It was certainly a bit sad that the ribbons she’d given her when they were children had burned, but Menou would never blame her for that, of course. Knowing how hard her assistant had worked, she smiled at Momo in the mirror.

“You look very cute.”

Tears pooled in Momo’s eyes.

“Darling…”

“What is it, Momo?”

“Why do you…always give me what I want…exactly when I want it…?”

“Who knows? Well, maybe because you’re my assistant.”

“I love you.”

With tears streaming down silently, Momo turned and wrapped her arms around Menou. As she cried, she clung to her with all the strength in her small frame.

“You’re the one thing I love in this whole world.”

“I know, I know. You’re still quite the crybaby, Momo.”

Menou gently wiped away her junior’s tears and stroked her head softly.

“I’m sorry I can’t give you anything better.”

“It’s perfeeect.”

Momo raised her head.

With her usual syrupy tone returning, Momo broke into a smile, her eyes still teary.

“Your Momo’s a simple girl. A gift like this is enough to cheer me uuup.”

“You shouldn’t say that about yourself.”

Patting her cute, cunning assistant on the head, Menou smiled wryly.

Once Momo’s mood recovered, the meeting went quickly, and it didn’t take long before Menou and Akari ventured to the outskirts of Garm, standing before the wall of light that towered over the city.

It was the protective barrier that separated the inhabited area from the Wild Frontier. There was a stone gate for people to pass through, which Orwell had constructed entirely on her own.

“Urgh. Once we pass through that gate, the pilgrimage begins, yeah?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

After her strange behavior that morning, Akari was back to her normal self.

Menou chuckled but still maintained her focus.

On this planet, there were few human-inhabited territories large and stable enough to be known as “nations.” The threats of violent monsters and demons, conjured soldiers and biological weapons left behind by ancient civilizations, and most of all the scars of Human Errors caused by Otherworlders had rendered many regions uninhabitable.

Since humans barely managed to survive and build nations due to the looming threat of the Wild Frontier, there were no two nations that bordered each other. Outside of each nation’s border loomed the large and impenetrable land, and only the pilgrimage route linked human territories to one another.

“As I explained before, it’ll be a journey of at least three months to reach the residence in the holy land.”

“Riiight. Walking on this pilgrimage thingy for weeks on end sounds pretty tough. You sure we can’t just catch a ride on a train?”

“Sorry, but no. There’s no line that goes straight there, and we don’t have the budget anyway.”

“Gotchaaa. Okay. I get that, but I dunno if I wanna sleep in a big huddle in an inn…”

“I’ll be with you, so try to bear it.”

“…Yeah! You’re right. As long as you’re with me, Menou, I can put up with just about anything!”

As soon as Menou reassured the complaining girl, Akari quickly perked up again. Noting that she was learning how to control Akari, she looked up at the white stone gate that marked the beginning of the pilgrimage.

There was a single verse engraved there.

It was the essence of the pilgrimage, which was also written on the first page of the guidebook. When one completed the journey, it was said that one would be cleansed of all sins and born anew.

Menou knew that her sins could never truly be washed away, but she still had a fondness for this illogical verse.

She reached out and touched the stone gate. Running her fingers along the carved letters, she thought of Momo, who had already gone ahead to the Wild Frontier.

On the train to Garm, Menou had experienced a strange sensation. Momo felt the same thing and told Menou her theory that the source was a conjuring from Akari that had affected the time of the entire world.

Even if it were true, it would naturally be impossible to prove, but Momo’s theory was probably correct.

Because if so, it would explain a lot of things.

Akari’s trust in Menou might even be because she had used her powers to come back from a time far in the future.

In this theory, she wouldn’t retain her memories from the old future when she returned to the present. That much was certain. Menou knew not only because of Akari’s behavior, but because she had used Guiding Force to touch her very soul and spirit.

Surely no one would put their utter faith in someone who they knew was trying to kill them.

Most likely, vestiges of Akari’s fondness for Menou from the future had remained after her Regression. Menou must have fooled the future Akari so much that she’d earned her unconditional trust, yet somehow failed to kill her, allowing her to Regress instead.

Which meant that Menou had to proceed with even more caution.

This time, she would proceed with the assumption that failure was a strong possibility, and she would still earn Akari’s trust while carefully finding a way to kill her without letting her manipulate time.

“Yeah. Make sure you kill me for sure this time.”

For a moment, Menou thought she felt the presence of a strange conjuring.

“…?”

She looked around but didn’t see anything strange. Even if the Guiding Light that indicated a conjuring were visible, it would be impossible to spot them amid the sparkling of the astral vein barrier.

“C’mon, Menooou. Let’s go! We’ll take the first step together, on the count of three!”

“…Oh, all right. Fine.”

Smiling at Akari’s childish request, Menou obligingly walked over to stand by her side.

This journey from Garm to the holy land was a perfect parallel with the journey that young Menou had walked with her Master, tracing the path along which she formed her identity.

It really did feel like a journey to rebirth.

Looking out at the path that she was about to tread once again, Menou remembered something her Master had said to her when she was young.

“You’ll absorb everything I am with that blanched-white soul and spirit of yours. And if someday it’s all broken down by happiness, and you still manage to survive…well, then you’ll surpass even me.”

It was the first goal that was given to her before her training as an Executioner truly began. Most likely, Menou would never make those words reality.

She had killed too many people to be granted happiness in her life. Reborn as an Executioner, Menou could no longer live for anything but killing other people. The only happiness that would satisfy Menou and break down her existence as an Executioner would be a blade one day taking her life.

On the off chance that she would be blessed enough to be forgiven all her sins one day and surrounded by kind people, like in the classroom she sometimes saw in her dreams, and if she was lucky enough to be granted the happiness of a best friend who would accept everything about her, she probably wouldn’t be able to go on living.

Menou was certain the person who would forgive her would be the cause of her death.

At the same time, she could not help but yearn for it a little.

If she could find the happiness of an encounter that would be wasted on a villain like her and die as a result, then she would want nothing more. If she could meet her end with a satisfied smile… It was a selfish desire, but she still wished it, deep down.

Standing at Akari’s side, Menou looked at the other girl’s face in profile.

Akari noticed her gaze and broke into a huge grin.

“Okay, let’s go together. On the count of three!”

“All right, all right.”

Menou responded with a small smirk to the carefree smile she’d grown so accustomed to, and they counted down and stepped forward in unison.

“One, two, three!”

The two began a long, long journey—for one girl to kill the other.