Maiden Dried from Dew

Rewind time to when the evening ball at Libelle Castle had just begun.

The monstrine production plant used by the Fourth was in a manor that stood in a supposedly deserted part of the port city. Since Flarette had arrived in town, they were on heightened alert, tension crackling in the air. The man who was guarding the gate could feel the nervousness from those within the building.

A lone figure approached the manor.

At a glance, she appeared to be an adorable young girl. She wore white gloves and a frilly culotte skirt. The black tights on her slender, fawn-like legs had a heart design over the thigh. It almost looked like the tail of a little devil. With her pink hair put up in two scrunchies, the diminutive girl had an impish air of cuteness.

Her sweet looks were certainly no cause for alarm. At most, one might think it would be dangerous for a young girl to be walking around alone at night.

The problem was the rest of her attire.

She wore priestess robes, albeit in white.

The sleeves and skirt hem had been altered, but it was still unmistakably a priestess’s robes. The white color indicated that she was only an aide, but she was still a member of the Faust, an enemy of the Fourth.

“Hey!” the brawny guard called out, but the girl didn’t slow her pace. He was taken aback by the closing distance between them. She was moving so confidently that he thought perhaps she hadn’t heard him, which made him hesitate to take further action.

But that was only for an instant. He stared the girl down with a mostly menacing face.

“Stop right there. What business does a priestess—”

—have here? He never managed to finish his sentence.

The girl nonchalantly drew a stringlike object out from her skirt and wrapped it around the guard’s neck.

She did it so naturally that he didn’t have time to react.

The sharp string dug into his neck. The prickling sensation on his skin rendered the guard speechless.

In silence, the girl brought her face closer.

When they were close enough that their noses were practically touching, she spoke with an expression so serious, it made the grown man shudder.

“Keep quiet if you don’t want me to saw your head off.”

Her voice was so chilly that her breath felt icy cold on his face. The guard turned pale. He could imagine all too clearly what would happen if the coping saw wrapped around his neck were to move.

The girl rolled her eyes as the man went mute with fear. Then she knocked him out with a knee to the stomach.

The glow of Guiding Enhancement surrounded her body. She placed her hands on the enormous gate, although it was firmly shut.

Her delicate arms moved to the side.

The iron gate bent like it was made of putty. Even with the help of Guiding Enhancement, this strength was far from ordinary. She twisted the gate open with ease, creating a hole large enough for a person to slip through.

After walking through the front gate, the girl stood at the main entrance to the building. When she noticed it was locked, annoyance crept onto her face. She’d technically been trying to be stealthy thus far, but now she raised her foot and slammed the sole of her boot into the heavy wooden door.

It was blasted inside.

A crash far too violent to be mistaken for a visitor’s knock echoed through the building. The workers inside noticed and began clamoring immediately. There was no indication of panic on the girl’s face. She walked into the manor and headed down a hallway with her coping saw in one hand.

As she infiltrated the enemy base, there was only one thought on her mind.

I’ll do my best so I can spend more time with my darling.

Momo was launching a head-on attack on the monstrine production plant.

The people inside acted purely on instinct.

Clearly, they had never thought about the possibility of being attacked. There didn’t even seem to be a proper chain of command. Momo fended off their uncoordinated counterattacks.

The majority of them seemed to be using this so-called monstrine, presumably unaware of its side effects, but they were hardly a threat. The strengthening they got from that strange drug was no more powerful than the average person using Guiding Enhancement.

It was undoubtedly convenient to gain strength comparable to Guiding Enhancement without any training. It enhanced their resilience, too. Being able to take a punch was certainly a significant advantage in battle.

But that was all.

Since they weren’t trained, they were essentially novice fighters. Slightly stronger than average amateurs were no threat to Momo, no matter how many attacked at once. She drove them off with ease.

Some scrambled away, but she didn’t bother chasing them. The area was already surrounded by knights on Sicilia’s command. If the fleeing members of the Fourth saw the knights and tried to resist, they’d be arrested, and if they asked for help, the knights would be able to break into their territory on the pretense of keeping the peace.

Momo stopped abruptly. She sensed an ambush waiting at the end of the hallway. The muzzle of a gun poked out around the corner.

It was a Guiding gun. These dangerous weapons automatically drew out the user’s power, turning it into bullets with the pull of the trigger. The production, distribution, and ownership of Guiding guns were all forbidden, but the Mechanical Society that controlled the eastern part of the Wild Frontier produced these pesky Guiding vessels, nonetheless.

Momo furrowed her brow and charged her priestess robes with power.

Guiding Force: Connect—Priestess Robes, Crest—Invoke [Barrier]

At the same time as a barrier appeared directly in front of Momo, the gun opened fire.

“Just like in Grisarika Kingdom… Where are they getting these things?”

The hail of bullets ricocheted off the barrier. Before long, the firing ceased. Since the Guiding guns used power, they drained the user’s energy rather quickly.

This was her chance. Momo took a step forward. Just then, the wall next to her broke open.

As soon as the gun stopped firing, a fighter from the Fourth burst through the wall to attack. The ambush from the gun up ahead was just a feint. When the firing stopped and created an opening, they would surprise her with an attack through the wall at the side. It isn’t a terrible plan, Momo thought. If anything, the only miscalculation was that they were no match for her.

Momo had already sensed the enemy’s presence, so she was able to react instantly. As soon as the fighter came crashing through the wall, she grabbed his face to stop his charge and slammed him into the floor.

“Gah…agh!”

She paid no mind to the short scream. Instead, she bashed him into the floor a second and third time, paused, and did it again. The floor cracked, and the man’s face dug into its surface. His limbs flailed wildly with each slam. By the fifth time he was smashed into the stone floor, the man had completely lost consciousness, and Momo decided to drag him along as a shield.

By the time she turned the corner, her would-be assailants were trembling in terror of what they’d just witnessed, their Guiding guns lying abandoned on the floor.

“Eek! H…help—”

Momo silenced the cowards with a swift kick to the face.

She didn’t care if they begged for their lives. She beat them up at random and stomped their guns into scrap metal. Since they were forbidden contraband, it wasn’t easy to acquire them in bulk. She assumed that was probably all they had as she moved forward.

When she entered a large room, there were some noncombatants cowering in the corner, presumably having missed their chance to get away. Perfect. She grabbed one of them and interrogated him while pressing her coping saw against his forehead, and he quickly spilled everything he knew.

Just like that, she’d gotten the information she needed. Momo had him lead the way to the office with important documents in it, where she grabbed a few stacks of paper and riffled through them.

“Aha. Bingo.”

The knights were supposed to bring up the rear after Momo’s attack, but just to be safe, she took some images as proof with a recording conjuring.

Once she’d recorded the members and source of funding, she headed downstairs. The monstrine in question seemed to be made with some special production equipment.

She’d noticed the stairs to the basement on her way here. Most of the workers had already either been beaten up or run away, so the manor was quiet. She knocked out the person who’d guided her and calmly headed toward the basement.

By the time she reached the bottom of the stairs, the air was almost disturbingly cold.

The room was large and rectangular. It was a ceremonial hall shaped like a coffin, a symbol of death. There were crests carved into the walls that formed all kinds of pictures.

Within the coffin-shaped room were smaller, individual coffins. The images on the walls represented the world after death. These were commonly seen in ceremonial halls related to the Concept of Original Sin.

And here, instead of a coffin, there was something far stranger in place.

“……Ugh.” Momo wrinkled her nose.

It was an iron maiden.

While on the outside it had the carved face of a woman, the inside contained sharp spikes. It was an infamous torture device and method of execution.

If it were only for decoration, that would be one thing. It would just exhibit poor taste.

But since it was in a ceremonial hall for Original Sin Conjurings, there was no way it was a mere decoration. Many of the Original Sin Conjurings required the sacrifice of a “pure maiden.”

Most of all, Momo detected the scent of blood.

There was a person inside. A living person, no less.

“So this is how monstrine is produced? How disgusting.”

Shaking her head, Momo drew closer to the ominous torture device.

There were crests carved into the coffins. A mysterious, warped conjuration. Those used for the sacrificial ceremony were drawn with the iron maiden at the center. Momo couldn’t read the finer details, but it was clearly an Original Sin at work.

A pill dropped from the lower part of the iron maiden with a clatter. Momo recognized it as the red pill called monstrine.

Clearly, whoever created this was not of a sound mind. They’re obviously insane, Momo thought as she undid the latch and opened the iron maiden.

Inside the torture device was a little girl.

She might have been ten years old, or maybe even younger. And yet, this small child was so covered in blood that to call her injured would be a gross understatement.

Her eyes barely seemed to see anything. She was so exhausted from pain that she couldn’t even make a whimper of anguish.

Noticing light outside the dark iron maiden, the girl reached out her hand.

Letting out a groan, her unsteady hand touched Momo’s palm. Even if she couldn’t see, she could at least detect the softness and warmth of a human touch. Her hand gripped Momo’s weakly.

“Mmm…” She let out a breath of utter relief.

A faint smile emerged on her lips. It was a childish, cherubic smile, with the pure trust normally reserved for a mother, or the mischievous glee one might share with a friend.

Then she spoke.

“…Mmmom.”

With that, the last of the strength left her small body.

As the girl expelled her last breath asking for her mother, the weight of her hand grew heavier. She slouched forward, and Momo gripped her hand tightly.

But the girl didn’t squeeze back.

“……”

Even Momo, who was usually uninterested in anything but Menou, felt compassion for a young life lost so tragically. She couldn’t possibly leave the girl like this. Just as she moved to extract the small girl’s body from the iron maiden…

Guiding Force: Auto-Connect (Conditions Met)—Iron Maiden, Crest—Invoke [Explosion]

“What?”

She didn’t even have time to be surprised.

The Guiding Force stored in the production vessel activated the crest, causing the Iron Maiden to explode. Spikes flew in every direction. The force of the explosion sent needles flying toward Momo.

It was almost point-blank distance. Since she was leaned in to pull out the little girl, she couldn’t possibly avoid them all.

Momo wasn’t nearly fast enough to activate the barrier crest in her priestess robe. She just barely managed to use Guiding Enhancement and defended her vital points with her arms. Several of the spikes scratched Momo, and one pierced her side. Momo grimaced in pain.

“Whoever set this up was awfully sadistic…”

It was a booby trap. Someone had set it up so that removing the girl from inside would activate a conditional crest and set off an explosion.

The strangest part was that it activated not when the iron maiden was opened, but when she removed the victim inside. Not only had the person responsible shut a little girl into a vile torture device, they had even used her as bait to set up a nasty trap.

Swearing, Momo pulled the spike out of her side. Fortunately, the wound was shallow. Still cursing to herself, she turned around to leave.

Then her legs faltered.

It wasn’t because of the pain from the wound. She hadn’t lost enough blood to affect her consciousness. And yet, her legs were suddenly shaky. It was a strange feeling, as if something was eroding away her spirit.

“It was coated with poison…!”

Momo clicked her tongue furiously. There had been poison on the iron maiden’s spikes.

“Whoever did this really is the absolute worst…!”

She scowled as she realized her own blunder.

All of this occurred the day before.

The morning after the ball at Libelle Castle, Menou visited the church.

Her pace was usually calm and collected, but today she was rushing in a near-panic. She couldn’t even fully compose her expression; the faint lines under her eyes betrayed her exhaustion.

There were two reasons Menou was in a fright.

One was that Akari had disappeared the night before. She’d been searching for her almost nonstop, but Akari had been gone without a trace since Manon Libelle’s party. This couldn’t possibly be a coincidence.

And there was one more reason.

Menou rushed into one of the sickrooms of the church, where Momo was resting. Lying in bed, she looked pale.

“Darli—”

“Don’t sit up.”

Momo tried to rise to greet her, but Menou didn’t want her to waste any energy. She quickly put her hand to Momo’s forehead and furrowed her own brow.

She was burning. An abnormally high fever and drenched in sweat. Her breathing was ragged and her eyes unfocused.

“……Poison, huh?”

“Yeah…” Momo’s voice sounded weak. “I’m…sorry… There was a kid, and I…let my guard down… I slowed…you down, darling…”

“You don’t need to apologize.” Menou shook her head at Momo, who looked guilty in spite of her awful state.

This was Menou’s mistake. She had placed too much responsibility on Momo. They didn’t have any information about the enemy’s forces, yet she sent Momo into their base anyway, assuming she would be fine.

“Just rest up and preserve your strength. Don’t worry. I’ll stamp out those scum from the Fourth.”

“…Okay.” Looking relieved, Momo quietly closed her eyes.

It must have been hard for her even to talk. As soon as her eyelids shut, Momo drifted off to sleep. But it couldn’t exactly be described as a peaceful rest. The poison was still eating away at her body.

Menou wiped the sweat off Momo’s forehead, then stroked her hair gently, brushing it into place.

She couldn’t ask Momo for any more help with this situation. As she left the sickroom behind, Menou made a rare display of fury, letting out a low growl.

“Now they’ve done it. Oh yes…they’ll pay. Damned scum…!”

Menou stormed toward Sicilia’s office. At this point, she couldn’t even be bothered trying to sneak around quietly on her own. What she was about to do was outside the realm of her duties.

But she didn’t care. Menou threw open the door to Pastor Sicilia’s office.

Sicilia looked up inquisitively at Menou, who’d entered without so much as a knock.

“Welcome. I suppose you’re done visiting your aide?”

“Yes. Just to confirm, her life isn’t in any danger in her condition, correct?”

“She’ll be fine. I believe her immense stores of Guiding Force have helped slow the spread of the poison to a shocking degree. It does seem like she’s suffering more because of it at present, but we’ll be able to neutralize the poison before it bears any threat to her life.”

“Thank you very much. I’m sorry for the inconvenience. Please let Momo rest here a little longer.”

“Of course. It’s part of the Faust’s duty to care for priestesses.”

Sicilia accepted Menou’s request without any indication that she expected anything in return.

“And about Akari, who we discussed the other day… Akari Tokitou, that is, has gone missing. Given the situation, I have to assume the Fourth are involved.”

“I share responsibility for that as well. I took my eyes off her at the ball when that pillar of fire appeared. Allow me to offer you my apologies, and some helpful information.”

“Do you have a lead…?”

“Yesterday, an elderly member of the Fourth’s inner circle gave himself up. He insists that Manon Libelle has taken over the Fourth and is causing all kinds of problems. It’s not clear why Akari Tokitou is missing, but given the timing, it’s reasonable to guess that Manon Libelle was involved.”

“…Then it’s even more important that we resolve things as quickly as possible. I’m requesting a lockdown of Libelle Island.” Menou looked directly into Sicilia’s eyes. “We’ll annihilate the Fourth. Let’s round up all the members and major players and capture all of them immediately. My assistant brought in all the proof we need. There should be no shortage of evidence.”

They would destroy the Fourth infesting Libelle, roots and all.

The Fourth in Libelle had harmed Momo—who was an Executioner even if only an aide—and kidnapped Akari, an Otherworlder. They were now officially enough of a threat that they had to be crushed before they could do anything worse, no matter how hurried the methods.

And most of all, Menou herself wouldn’t allow them to go on any longer.

How dare they lay a hand on her one and only junior and assistant? What did they think they were doing with her traveling companion, Akari?

She wasn’t letting it show in front of Sicilia, but Menou was absolutely furious.

Menou wouldn’t hesitate to make full use of her authority as an Executioner and destroy them without a trace. If she couldn’t do that alone, then she would use Sicilia’s authority as a pastor. Seeing Momo’s condition, they had plenty of proof to crush the group for the activities they were doing under the guise of the Fourth.

“While Libelle Island is being locked down and surrender demanded, I’ll infiltrate the castle and capture Manon Libelle and the other leaders. That will put an end to all of this.”

The proof Momo had recorded was very thorough.

She had the sources of their funds, their secret accounting books, a list of members, and images of the crimes they were committing in the basement. She’d even confiscated some physical evidence. All of it was more than enough to justify the priestesses from the Faust and the knights of the Noblesse making a move.

In Libelle, there was cooperation between the two social estates. That was due to the efforts of Pastor Sicilia.

“…This is unexpected.” Sicilia removed her glasses. She wiped the lenses, then put them back on. “So you do know how to depend on other people…unlike Flare.”

Menou blinked in bewilderment.

Abruptly, she remembered the events in the ancient capital of Garm. Maybe she had unwittingly been influenced by the things that were said to her that day.

“Pastor Sicilia…do you know my Master?”

“Yes, we met a long time ago. She told me I was incompetent right to my face. You and I have met as well, in fact…but I suppose it makes sense you wouldn’t remember.”

What had happened in the past? Menou couldn’t read any particular emotion in Sicilia’s bland expression.

“Didn’t you suspect me to be behind this? Are you telling me that you never once wondered whether I might be the one pulling the strings behind the scenes of this whole affair?”

“I did.” Menou had just recently been lured into a trap in the Archbishop Orwell incident. Of course she couldn’t trust someone else just because they were both members of the Faust.

So naturally, she’d been investigating since she first arrived in the city. She’d considered the pastor’s quick actions since the whole affair began and the fact that she’d already made arrangements to cooperate with the knights. She worked hard and was trusted by the other priestesses, too.

“I investigated, made contact, and determined you were worthy of trust before I made this proposal. Pastor Sicilia, you are an outstanding priestess. Which is exactly why I’m asking for your help.”

“…Thank you.”

That was the first time Sicilia had ever thanked her.

“In this case, we should certainly be able to get the Order of Knights to cooperate.”

The only road to the port city was blocked off.

Libelle Island was home to many from the Noblesse, as well as the majority of the Fourth. With the road closed, there was nowhere for them to run. Some had already surrendered, but the rest had shut themselves up in Libelle Castle.

“Well, this is bothersome.”

Manon gazed out from the castle at the blockade keeping them from the mainland. Contrary to her words, she didn’t actually look bothered in the least. In fact, she was smiling as though enjoying the situation.

Having seen the blockade for herself, Manon went into the meeting room to amuse herself with the remaining members of the Fourth, who were panicking. She was expecting them to be kicking up a fuss, but the meeting room was deathly silent.

The members were all stopped in place.

“Oh my.” Manon’s eyes widened in surprise.

Every single Fourth member in the room was frozen in an unnatural posture. They weren’t moving an inch, just emitting a faint glow of Guiding Light. Their breathing and even their heartbeats had stopped.

Time itself had halted for them.

Something very strange was happening here. Amid the people frozen in time stood a single girl.

“Good to see you again, Ms. Manon. I’d like to ask you a few questions, if you don’t mind.”

It was Akari who emerged from the shadows. She had changed out of her priestess robes from the night before and into her normal clothes.

Manon smiled coolly. “Welcome, Ms. Akari. Please, have a seat.”

She was welcoming the sudden intruder with open arms. Akari’s brow furrowed.

“…You’re not scared?”

“No. You said you wanted to ask me something, didn’t you? I have nothing to hide, so all I have to do is answer honestly. By all means, let us talk.”

Akari cautiously sat down in a chair. She was confident that she could stop Manon if she tried anything. The power of Time had almost never failed her.

Whether she knew what Akari was thinking or not, Manon simply smiled.

“Now, please go on. What did you want to ask me so badly that you even left Ms. Menou’s side?”

“Last night, I let myself into your room and the castle office, but I couldn’t figure anything out, so I’ll just ask you directly. Why did you know who I am?”

“Because I’d heard about you.” Manon answered effortlessly, compared to Akari, who was wording her question with care.

But her response didn’t seem to reassure the asker. Akari’s wariness only deepened.

“You heard…what about me?”

“I’ve heard that you made the world Regress.”

Akari’s gaze sharpened.

After all, it was time itself that she had Regressed. Someone who was acting closely with Akari, like Menou or Momo, might be able to guess what had happened, but it would never occur to anyone else. And it would be downright impossible to know for sure.

Yet, Manon revealed even more.

“You’ve already made the world Regress once or twice at the very least, correct? I was told that you’ve reversed time for the world on several occasions.”

She was correct, although there was no way she could possibly have known. It wasn’t just once that Akari had Regressed the timeline of the world. It was because of her countless failures that Akari’s goal was now to be killed by Menou. No one but Akari should be privy to that information.

“Who told you all this?”

“Pandemonium,” Manon replied frankly. “If I told you that I’d undone the seal that’s been on that fog for a thousand years, would you believe me?”

“…I wouldn’t.”

“That’s absolutely correct. I’m lying, of course. That’s not the sort of thing someone like me could do anything about.”

Then what was the point of the lie? Akari was still trying to figure out Manon’s objective.

“I don’t know what your goal is, Ms. Akari, but… Well, I imagine this is the first time we’ve met. I doubt I could have caused something like this all on my own, after all.”

“……” Akari nodded silently.

The events that occurred in the port city had always been extremely minor until this time around. There was no such thing as monstrine involved. A small group in Libelle calling themselves the Fourth picked a fight with Menou and lost. That was all there was to it. It was an incident Menou could definitely handle on her own.

So why had it turned into a massive incident where humans turned into monsters and Momo was taken out of commission by poison?

“I don’t know all the details, but I know you’re attacking Menou to take revenge for your mother. There wasn’t any information in the office, but before I used Suspension on these people, I heard them talking about it a little.”

“Taking revenge, huh…?” Manon tilted her head thoughtfully as Akari gave her a searching look. “I suppose that’s not untrue. But you’re a little off the mark, so let me explain in detail. You see, my mother was a lost one.”

Manon’s statement made Akari freeze in place.

“Your mother was…?”

“That’s right. But she wasn’t summoned like you. She was guided here by the stars, a lost one in the truest sense of the phrase.”

Manon’s mother was a woman who had genuinely stumbled into this world by chance, instead of being summoned by someone else like most Otherworlders.

“Evidently, it’s difficult to sense disturbances in the heavenly and earthen veins in this area, perhaps because it’s so close to Pandemonium. So the Faust failed to notice my mother’s arrival. The members of the Fourth were beside themselves with excitement, I’m told. Finding an Otherworlder before the Faust does is practically unheard-of.”

Her voice didn’t contain any underlying notes of emotion.

Otherworlders, in the end, were humans with extraordinary powers. And this was at the height of the Fourth’s heyday. If they could get this person to join them, they would have a serious secret weapon at their disposal. So Count Libelle took her into his custody in secret and made a social position for her by marrying her.

“In other words, I am the child of Count Libelle, a native of this world, and a lost one.”

However, Manon’s father never asked her mother to use her powers.

Why? The reason was simple: The use of Pure Concepts eroded the user’s memories.

Her father was afraid of that. He didn’t want her mother to lose any of her memories. He was too afraid of the possibility that she would forget about the time he’d spent with her.

For at some point, Count Libelle had fallen in love with the lost one—deeply, hopelessly in love.

Her father’s influence was the reason Manon wore a kimono. He bought up any relics of the ancient civilization that he could find. The reason objects related to the ancient civilization were so sought-after in Libelle, even those that were practically junk, was because Count Libelle was collecting them.

So instead, he pushed the role of using power onto Manon.

If an Otherworlder’s child could inherit their power, then he could convince the others in the Fourth that there was no need for Manon’s mother to use her Pure Concept.

“They hoped I would be born with power like my mother’s, but to make a long story short, things didn’t work out that way. If I had been able to have a Pseudo-Concept, if not a Pure Concept, then it might have been different…but I was a fairly ordinary child.”

So, the people around her were disappointed and occasionally whispered among themselves: “What a bummer. She’s just a normal girl.”

Parents’ gossiping inevitably reaches their children, so Manon was soon ostracized from the other children’s groups. Libelle Island was small, with the extended Libelle family accounting for at least half the population. Once they decided she was a failure, she was shunned by all.

When most of them rebelled against her parents for supporting the outdated beliefs of the Fourth, they certainly didn’t take Manon with them.

“Then, around ten years ago, a visitor called Flare killed my mother. Purely because she was an Otherworlder.”

“…And did you do all this just to get at Menou, because she’s the successor to the person who killed your mother?”

“No, I think that occurrence itself was inevitable. I loved my mother, but I understand why the church asserts that the Pure Concepts of Otherworlders are dangerous, too. So it made perfect sense that they felt they had to kill her.”

It was Manon’s father who grieved her mother’s death the most.

Manon still vividly remembered her father’s anguish when her mother died. That was why his mental condition had been on the decline ever since. As his only child, Manon gradually began to prepare to take over his duties.

When her father collapsed, she was quick to accept the situation. She didn’t feel sad, not even over the fact that she felt nothing about it.

Since she had always been expected to have something she didn’t, Manon had long since given up on expecting anything from others.

“So my revenge isn’t directed toward Menou. It’s directed toward all of the Fourth.” Manon pointed at the frozen members. “I wanted them to realize just how powerless they are. I backed them into a corner so that they would be fully aware of how meaningless their existence is. And… Yes, I suppose I wanted to become taboo.”

Akari knit her brow at the casual confession. “That’s just weird.”

“Really? In what way?”

“What do you mean, ‘In what way’…?”

It should have gone without saying what was bizarre about Manon’s desire to be taboo.

“I mean, taboo is just a means to an end,” Akari said.

For instance, Archbishop Orwell had committed it to try to escape from aging. And the king of Grisarika Kingdom had summoned Otherworlders like Akari to oppose the Faust.

Taboo was nothing more than a means to accomplish a goal.

“…Ha-ha. I suppose that’s true.” Manon chuckled elegantly. It sounded as if she was genuinely amused at herself. “But personally, that’s my only wish.”

There was a certain nihilism in Manon’s voice that was hard to place as she stared frankly at Akari. Her voice was thick with cynicism.

“The expectations of adults can be unreasonable. No matter what you do, they won’t acknowledge you unless it’s exactly in line with their expectations.”

When Manon was young, it didn’t make any sense to her.

She did even better than she was told to do. She excelled more than any of the other children. But all she got in return was disappointment. No matter how hard she tried, how much she succeeded, or how long she wondered what she was doing wrong, they still wanted something from her that she couldn’t acquire through learning—until Manon’s heart twisted, warped, and finally broke.

“Really, it would’ve been better if I had rebelled against them. But I wanted to live up to their expectations. I wanted to give them everything they wanted. Isn’t that normal?”

Manon stood up. To Akari’s confusion, she produced a red pill from her sleeve, crushed it, and put the powder on her finger.

“Children can’t help trying to live up to the expectations of the adults around them.”

She touched her finger to the floor and rubbed the powder in, drawing a crest. The twisted red writing seemed to reflect the state of her wretched heart.

“My revenge is to live up to their expectations at last and show them how foolish those expectations really were. I’m in the middle of my teen rebellion now, after all.”

Once she’d drawn the shape on the floor, she connected the crest to the people who were still frozen. Akari wrinkled her brow. They were frozen by Akari’s conjuring right now. No other kind of conjuring should be able to affect them.

“The way I see it, people are born twice. The first time is when they come out of their mother, birthed crying into the world. And the second time is when they leave their parents and learn to stand on their own. I was a child, but in becoming an adult, I will take back my self-worth from the people around me. However…there is a surprising number of people who aren’t able to be born that second time.”

She couldn’t become the person she wanted to be. Couldn’t make herself into what other people’s expectations made her think she had to become. She polished herself, conquered her surroundings, and became more exceptional than anyone around her, yet Manon still couldn’t get what she had strived for.

“There is no point in going on the way I am right now. And so I will become taboo.”

Guiding Force: Sacrifice—Chaos Collusion, Pure Concept [Evil]—Summon [I found a wee little shadow.]

The summoning circle she’d drawn on the floor produced an Original Sin Conjuring.

Manon’s shadow began to lose its form. It spread out and began swallowing up the people in the meeting room.

One by one, Manon’s shadow absorbed and broke down the people who were under Akari’s Suspension, as if devouring prey. And in fact, it really was eating them. It swallowed up their bodies, spirits, and even souls, acquiring their power.

Akari’s eyes widened at the scene. “How is this happening…?”

Suspension was a conjuring that also protected its target. As long as time was stopped for them, they couldn’t be affected by outside forces.

And yet, the conjuring that had just been invoked ate through the power fueling Akari’s Pure Concept and used them as sacrifices.

For a moment, Akari couldn’t move. She was never the sort of person who could quickly react to unexpected situations. The reason she was able to act so calm during the Garm incident, for example, was because she knew exactly what would happen. She had experienced it several times already, so she was confident she could get through with the help of her Pure Concept of Time.

But this experience was entirely new.

The unfamiliar scene slowed her thinking. It wasn’t just that she didn’t know what was happening—she was also seeing her conjuring being broken. It was too much for her to process.

Manon’s shadow swallowed up everyone else in the room with no regard for the Suspension.

“It appears my power is greater than yours after all.” Manon smiled in satisfaction.

It wasn’t that Akari had never encountered anything that her conjurings using Time couldn’t affect. In the ceremonial hall in Garm, the white droplet hadn’t stopped even when Akari used Suspension. But that liquid was taken from the Starhusk, the site of one of the Four Major Human Errors…which meant that this phenomenon she’d just witnessed had comparable power.

“Now then, Ms. Akari.”

Manon’s shadow took on physical form and began to rise. By sacrificing the people in the meeting room, it had gained access to this illicit power. The roiling shadow wrapped around Akari’s foot. She still couldn’t move, her thoughts frozen by the unforeseen turn of events.

Manon smiled sweetly and opened her fan.

“It appears your time is up.”

Just then, a dagger flew toward her neck.

The moment she saw Manon capturing Akari, Menou immediately threw her dagger.

Since she was familiar with the place after the evening ball, it was a simple matter to infiltrate the castle. However, it looked like she was already too late.

It was obvious from one glance at the meeting room what had happened here. Manon Libelle had sacrificed the members of the Fourth and put their power into her shadow. And now, perhaps intending another conjuring ceremony, she was reaching for the captive Akari.

It was an illegal conjuring that filled not the body but the soul with the Concept of Original Sin. At this point, Manon was already closer to a demon than a human. There was no longer any cause to keep her alive after committing such a crime.

So Menou immediately shifted her focus.

She threw her dagger at the back of Manon’s neck.

It was a full-strength throw without any warning, but Manon reacted instantly. She opened the fan in her hand and knocked the dagger away.

It was an iron fan: a means of self-defense that looked perfectly harmless. The fact that she carried such a thing must have meant she didn’t trust anyone around her. Calmly analyzing her opponent, Menou moved closer to Manon.

She’d started running as soon as she threw the dagger, her boot stomping over the shadow, which tried to restrict her movements. Moving with fearless footsteps, Menou managed to catch the deflected dagger in midair and drove it toward her opponent’s breast.

Manon reacted accordingly. She blocked the blade with her iron fan and moved her shadow again. The darkness at her feet was now an extension of her, one she could move freely without a care for any light source.

Menou spotted a shadow spiked like a spear moving toward her. She dodged to one side and lashed out with her blade—as a feint. Then she spun herself around.

A spinning kick.

The sole of her boot drove toward Manon, but she blocked it by using her shadow as a shield.

Neither side had taken damage from the first volley of attacks.

But Menou had accomplished her goal.

She used the recoil from her kick to propel herself backward, within reach of Akari. Manon had used the shadow inching closer to Akari to block Menou’s kick. As soon as the girl was free of the shadow’s grip, Menou scooped her up in her arms.

“M-Menou…”

As she murmured in shock, tears began to spill from Akari’s eyes. Menou looked at her, startled.

“Ah, um, this… It’s not what it looks like… P-please don’t think…that I’m being weird…”

“All right. I’m sorry, Akari. It’s my fault for taking my eyes off you. I underestimated how easy a target you are for abduction.”

Akari must have been truly terrified; her words were nearly nonsensical. With an apology, Menou gave her a push toward the exit of the room.

“Hurry up and get out of here. Leave the castle and head toward the edge of the island. Pastor Sicilia or one of the knights will look after you.”

“O-okay.”

Akari was uncharacteristically obedient. Menou had half expected her to insist on staying in the thick of battle or something, as she did when they were caught by Orwell, but this time she said nothing of the sort. She just wiped her tears with her palm and scrambled away.

In fact, it was almost as if she was running from Menou.

That was a little strange, but Menou was facing off with the enemy. She had no time to focus her attention on Akari.

Once she confirmed that Akari had fled, Menou turned her gaze back to Manon.

She was a quiet-looking girl with indigo hair in a loose braid. Her expression was far too serene for someone who had just killed a decent amount of people in cold blood; there were no traces of guilt, excitement, or fear to be found in her face. It wasn’t as if she was concealing her emotions—rather, it was like they were nonexistent.

Turning toward the girl in the kimono, Menou readied her dagger.

“Manon Libelle. I’ll be executing you now.”

Manon had already crossed the line. She’d offered up the people here as sacrifices, invoked an Original Sin Conjuring, and turned herself into something not entirely human.

“Nicely said, Ms. Menou.” For some reason, the mastermind behind this entire affair smiled as she stood at the other end of the executioner’s blade. “Hearing you say that has made it clear to me: I have finally become free. I’ve been liberated from the people who kept me in chains without even allowing me to realize I was bound. Yes. Oh yes, indeed. Your blade has shown me the truth at last.”

She boldly faced Menou the Executioner. “I’m now a true embodiment of the Fourth.” No shadow darkened her smile. “Unlike those geriatrics who were driven by their own selfish desires…I seek the liberation of the world, for freedom and independence, just as the Fourth are meant to believe.”

She firmly planted a hand on her chest and went on. “What does it mean to be born into the Noblesse? What does it mean to have a peaceful society? The so-called peace you Faust enforce is the reason my mother was deemed a taboo entity and killed. The Noblesse spat on me as a disappointment. And the Commons, indifferent, will not even look at me. This world has locked my life away.”

Manon’s life was dictated by the foolishness of the Noblesse.

And the pridefulness of the Faust, and the complacency of the Commons. She was a victim of this world’s three-estate system and all of its flaws.

“And so I have chosen to become taboo and fight back against it.”

Manon had grown up doing as she was told. Without a doubt, her freedom was continually taken from her by not just the people around her, but by the system itself, which had existed for a thousand years.

Thus, Manon Libelle felt she had no choice but to become taboo herself to rebel.

“I have gained taboo powers to fight with the world. I believe that is the ultimate form of the Fourth, who claim to champion freedom and independence.”

The girl who was more deserving to call herself part of the Fourth than anyone else in this town laughed lightly.

Menou. Flarette. The Executioner.

As her dagger glinted, Manon had a vision of the past.

“You have a big sister, you know.”

Manon’s mother used to whisper such things in her ear when her father wasn’t around.

Evidently, she had a half sister by blood: a child her mother had when she was in Japan, before she met Manon’s father.

Of course, the fact that she had an older sister a world apart from her didn’t really mean much to Manon. But she remembered that her mother often looked sad about the other daughter she’d left behind.

“Your big sister was a bright, cheerful, energetic girl.”

When they were alone, her mother told her these stories.

Unlike the other adults around her, Manon’s mother didn’t have any baffling expectations of her.

She simply loved Manon, in order to bury her sadness about having lost another daughter. Manon realized that whenever her mother looked at her, her eyes were seeing right through her into someplace far away.

Manon clearly remembered the moment her mother was killed.

There was no warning. The two of them were talking together.

And then, suddenly, a blade went through her mother’s chest.

A small spray of blood hit Manon’s cheek, warm and wet. And at the same time, something happened to her mother’s outline.

Guiding Force: Connect—S?T?i?K???Pure Concept [Consume]—

Purple Guiding Light burst out of her mother, and a conjuring was starting to take form when a voice spoke.

“You’d better hold that back.”

When had she appeared? The priestess holding the blade that was still pierced through her whispered something in her mother’s ear.

“If you let that loose here, your kid’s gonna die, you know.”

Her mother’s eyes widened. Her lips trembled, and she quickly bit down on them. The fading light of consciousness suddenly returned to her eyes, and she gazed at Manon.

It felt as if she was looking directly at Manon, and only Manon, for the first time.

The conjuring that was about to be invoked dispersed. The red-headed priestess pulled the dagger out of her mother’s heart.

Then her mother crumpled to the floor. Manon reached out to her gingerly.

She was dead. Blood seeped out of the corpse. As the puddle of blood grew bigger, her body temperature grew lower. In the midst of her confusion, tears began to spill from Manon’s eyes. The red-haired priestess glanced at her just once, then turned away.

“…I—I found it.”

This was the answer.

The conjuring that her mother had started to unleash when she died. That was what all the adults wanted from Manon, she realized.

She was supposed to be next. That blade should be piercing her heart next. And when she died, surely she, too, would release something powerful from her body. She had finally found what everyone had wanted from her since birth, what she could never find, the reason for her despair.

“Please wait.”

And so she desperately tried to stop the priestess. In that moment, Manon probably really did want to die.

“…Seems like I’m fated to get saddled with annoying kids lately.” The priestess sighed. “I might be a killer, but I’m not a slaughterer. I’m a pure, proper, and powerful priestess, you know. Why should I have to kill a little kid?”

“B-because I’m my mother’s child!”

Even she didn’t entirely believe what she was saying. It didn’t make sense. If her mother was a taboo entity who deserved to be killed simply for living, then she must have deserved the same, since everyone had expected her to be the same way.

If she was her mother’s child, she must not belong in this world. That was why everyone was so cold toward her.

“You’re not taboo.” The red-haired priestess tucked her dagger back into the sheath attached to her boot as she rejected Manon’s belief. “Let me explain something to you. Pure Concepts attach to Otherworlders’ souls. And unlike physical traits, the soul isn’t hereditary in the least. It belongs to the individual. So even if you have Japanese blood, your soul won’t have a Pure Concept attached, not even a Pseudo-Concept.”

“Ah…”

How was Manon supposed to respond to that?

She couldn’t put it into words. All she knew was that even if she kept on growing up in the same way, the disappointment of the people around her would never go away.

There was probably no one in the world who could understand the futility she felt in that moment. Manon was confronted with the nihilistic emptiness of her own life. All this time, she had searched so naively for a way to live up to the adults’ expectations, never once doubting that it must be inside her somewhere.

But it wasn’t.

Manon had grown up staring into an empty void.

As soon as she became aware of her own meaninglessness, something inside her snapped. Watching the light leave little Manon’s gaze, the red-haired priestess narrowed her eyes.

Then the priestess turned and departed. She never appeared again. There was a gaping hole left behind in Manon’s heart, a rift remaining where the blade she had been expecting to pierce her chest never appeared…ever since that moment when she was lit by the Guiding Light leaving her mother’s dying body.

She desperately wished she could redo that moment.

And so, as she gazed at the Executioner’s blade that had returned to her ten years later, Manon’s heart danced.

“Come now, Ms. Menou.”

Manon’s shadow began to bubble upward.

Imbued with a physical presence, it turned into multiple blades and sped toward Menou. No, not just her—it began attacking and destroying the entire room almost indiscriminately.

The floor gave way.

Menou and Manon both tumbled downward.

When they landed, they were in a spacious dance hall, the same place where the party had been held the evening before. Without any tables or decorations, the hall was hauntingly empty.

“Let us fight to our hearts’ content.”

Silently, Menou sped forward. Manon smiled widely as she welcomed the other girl’s attack.

As soon as she heard that Flarette had arrived in this town, she’d had a feeling. She felt sure to the point of relief that Flarette would come to kill her, just as Flare had killed her mother.

When she finally met Flarette, she was different than Manon had imagined, but even more captivating than she had hoped.

What an unusual, unstable girl. What pitiful expressions she sometimes wore. Though she put on an act of resolve and absolute faith, the truth was that she was constantly hesitating. Yet, despite her inner conflict, she never strayed from her path, and the aim of her blade was always true. She held firm in her heart something that Manon had gradually lost along the way.

She was like a sharp, thin blade, always polished to perfection and boasting an incredible edge, yet all the more brittle and easily broken because of it.

Menou’s movements were swift, logical, and precise as she chased Manon down. The more she was backed into a corner, the more Manon’s body felt strangely light.

The blade known as Menou would surely pierce Manon’s heart.

And in that moment, Manon had no doubt that she would become freer than anyone else.

“Hyah!”

There was the clash of metal on metal. Menou threw her dagger with a sharp exhale, but Manon blocked it with her iron fan. Within moments, Menou had drawn the dagger back into her hand with a Guiding Force thread and attacked again. Good, thought Manon. More. Keep going. It’s not over yet.

She moved the shadows that had by now become an extension of her hands. The inky blades danced around the room at random, attacking everything in sight.

It was a seemingly random attack, designed to disguise her real aim.

Menou scowled. You’re a nasty one, her expression seemed to say. In response, Manon smiled mischievously. Making your opponent upset is a basic battle tactic, she answered silently. Manon’s wild attacks broke through the wall of the dance hall; as it crumbled, sunlight shone through and illuminated her.

Menou slipped back into the shadows to put distance between them, though likely not out of an aversion to the sunlight.

The Executioner was staring straight at Manon. Her gaze felt incredible. Looking back at the brilliance of those pale eyes, Manon shivered irresistibly. Now, what will you do next? Her thoughts were just starting to heat up when she witnessed something strange.

The outline of Menou’s body suddenly blurred and became hard to see, even though Manon was looking right at her.

“Oh? What’s this?”

She narrowed her eyes and soon realized what was happening.

Menou’s colors were blending into the background.

Guiding Camouflage. It was a technique that used the light emitted by Guiding Enhancement and altered its colors to the user’s will, creating an illusory effect. Since Menou was able to use this secret technique without relying on a crest or scripture, it was her ace in the hole.

Manon didn’t know the particulars of how Guiding Camouflage worked, but she could at least surmise that it was an optical illusion created by changing the appearance of Guiding Light.

She tried to counteract it, but too late. She had completely lost track of Menou’s movements as soon as she blended into the background. In seconds, Menou was directly in front of her.

The dagger drove deep into her shoulder.

Guiding Force: Connect—Dagger, Crest—

As she struck, Menou sent a surge of Guiding Force into the dagger’s crest. Manon knew immediately that she had no way of stopping the conjuring.

“It’s over.”

Invoke [Gale]

The crest engraved into Menou’s dagger created a burst of wind from the blade buried in Manon’s flesh.

“Ah, oof!”

Her arm swelled up at once, like a balloon inflated too fast. The wind pressure from inside the wound was too much, and her shoulder blew open, her arm flying off completely.

“O-oh, dear me…ngh!”

Menou mercilessly grabbed the wounded Manon and lifted her by the neck.

She felt her throat closing up. Menou’s body was glowing with Guiding Enhancement. Manon was lifted high off the floor, away from her shadow, so that she could no longer make it move. She was out of options.

The fight was over.

It hadn’t been much of a fight in the first place. But truth be told, that was exactly what Manon had been hoping for. She was satisfied with this end, in her own way.

At the very least, it was much better than living out the rest of her life without doing anything at all.

If she had any regrets, she supposed there was a tiny part of her that wished she could have played with Menou a little more.

Her face twisted up in pain as she began to suffocate, Manon still choked out a laugh.

“It’s been fun, Ms. Menou.”

“Speak for yourself.”

“…Oh, please don’t make that face.” Manon winced as she chuckled.

There was no mercy in the hand that gripped her throat, yet somehow, Menou was wearing a hurt expression. Looking at her, Manon finally understood.

She didn’t really want to kill anyone.

“Say, Ms. Menou. Haven’t you ever felt this way? Sick of your parents, sick of all the bossy adults? Wondering why these people think they can order you around, why they’re always getting in your way…? Haven’t you ever gotten so sick of it all that you just can’t stand it?”

The mastermind behind the chaos in Libelle revealed her ridiculous motive.

It was like the confession of a little girl who’d been caught running away from home. But in truth, it really was nothing more than just that.

“Because I certainly have. Something that’s existed since before I was born decided the course of my entire life. I thought that was just awful. I am my own person, you know. I loved my mother very much, but I was still myself, not her.”

With nowhere to run and no way to resist, Manon nonetheless ranted on.

“And yet, I was bound by the expectations of others, to the point where I don’t even know what I want to do myself. Isn’t it ever so foolish to determine the course of your life based on how others want you to be? That’s why I turned to the darkness.”

Becoming taboo. Being set free.

To Manon, those two things were one and the same.

“It’s dreadful to be saddled with a role, isn’t it? That’s why when people in this world want to be set free from some kind of fetters, they turn to taboo.”

And what was the goal of that taboo? It didn’t take long for her to come up with an answer.

“People sometimes come from another world to this one, just as my mother once did. And throughout the course of history, they have been given the duty of bringing about change. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Her life was draining fast. On the verge of her death, Manon spoke with the fervor of a believer who has received a divine revelation.

“The Pure Concepts they are given are part of the Concepts that rule this planet. These are powers created by the energy of the planet and by human history. Do you understand? When a lost one visits our world, they are given a specific power to act as a catalyst for change that the people of this planet want them to bring about. At least, that’s how I see it.”

It was a wild theory. Confronted with this strange new point of view, Menou furrowed her brow, though she didn’t lessen the strength of her grip.

“Many of them are summoned for the selfish desires of others, though,” she countered. “Your mother may have arrived here by chance, but that is not the case for most who find their way into our world.”

“Perhaps, but the people who summon these Otherworlders are seeking change, too.”

There was no hesitation in Manon’s response. She was steadily losing blood from her ruined shoulder, but the more her life force drained away, the stronger her conviction became.

“No matter how big a political force in this world might be, there is still a means to call upon a power strong enough to destroy it. We need strength from the outside to change. We need encounters that make us question what’s normal and natural. Just as I could not change without becoming taboo, there are things in this world that cannot change without these types of forces involved.”

Manon was living proof that even if a Japanese person had a child with someone of this world, the child would still be a native of this world as well. It was impossible to inherit a Pure Concept from an Otherworlder.

“Otherworlders—with their power, knowledge, and ideas—are revolutionaries sent by this very planet.”

They were humans, too, but their roles were different.

“And yet, for the past thousand years, we’ve repressed this world. Ever since the ancient civilization that Otherworlders created was destroyed, the Faust has stood at the top of our world and reigned supreme. They’ve even dealt with Otherworlders, the outside pressure provided by the planet, and forcibly brought peace to the world. Which is exactly why change is so desperately needed.”

“Are you that unhappy with this world?” Menou asked.

“Of course I am. Peace robs us of freedom and independence. It creates more and more people like me. The more there is peace, the more the world will stagnate and rot.”

She was losing focus, perhaps from the blood loss.

“Without a doubt, the Faust are the rulers of this world. We need an impetus from the outside to open the lid that they’ve been forcing down on us. Just as you provided a spark from the outside to the Fourth in this town, Ms. Menou, there is a real need for an outside force strong enough to break through the massive shackle restraining this current world. No matter how much damage is caused in the process…even if it devours entire islands, carves holes in the earth, and sinks a continent into the sea.”

“There is no such force,” Menou responded. “No matter what taboo might come about, Executioners will continue to dispose of them. If you wish for change, then go through the proper procedures, and pay in your own blood. There is no reason that can justify sacrificing others.”

“But isn’t sacrificing others your entire job, Ms. Menou?”

“Yes. I’m a villain, after all.” Menou sounded firm, but she looked hurt by her own words.

Seeing this, Manon chuckled. “…Heh, I see. But things changed a thousand years ago. Didn’t they? And the force for change in that case was an Otherworlder, too. So I think you can change, Ms. Menou. After all, you have one by your side as well. You, too, have the right to rebel against the world.”

While Menou held fast to her role, Manon spoke as one who had cast aside her duties as a member of the Noblesse and fallen to sin.

“If you wanted to change, I’m sure that girl by your side would be happy to lend you her strength anytime.”

“Don’t be stupid!” Menou raised her voice for the first time.

“…My, you’re surprisingly easy to read, Ms. Menou.” Manon’s eyes widened for a moment, then she smirked. “As I said to Ms. Akari, I believe people are born twice. So in order for you to be born again, there is something you must overcome… Ah, but then again, I’m told this is far from the first time… So maybe it’s you who will have to change Ms. Akari in the end. Otherwise, everything will stay the same.”

“What in the world are you going on about?”

“It’s a secret. I’m somewhat decent, believe it or not. It’s common courtesy to keep another girl’s secrets. Besides, you’re already too late, Ms. Menou. You see…you’ve chosen the wrong person to chase.”

The corners of her lips rising mischievously, Manon spoke to someone other than Menou. “You can come out now. I’ll offer myself to you as my final sacrifice.”

There was no one else around but Menou and Manon. What was she talking about? Or was she going mad in the final moments before her death? Menou furrowed her brow—

Guiding Force: Sacrifice—Chaos Collusion, Pure Concept [Evil]—Summon [Happy birthday to me.]

There was a flash of deep crimson.

“…What?” Menou’s eyes widened when she realized where the red light was coming from.

A sense of dread flooded her body, setting her hairs on end. Slowly, Menou looked down from Manon’s smiling face to the girl’s stomach.

There was a hand there.

A little arm had burst through Manon’s stomach and out of her body.

“You were too late from the very beginning. This all started long before you even arrived in this city.”

The small hand tore open Manon’s stomach, ripped through the obi that held her kimono in place, and reached toward Menou.

It came out up to the forearm, then the upper arm. Just as the bloodstained fingertips were about to touch her, Menou flung Manon away.

Manon’s body hit the floor and rolled over so that she was facing upward, the arm still reaching out of her stomach. Manon kept smiling quietly, unfazed by the impact at this point.

“The reason I was spreading that monstrine is because of this little one here. Think about it, won’t you? How in the world would one young girl like me create monstrine without the Faust noticing?”

Manon squeezed the hand that was reaching out of her stomach.

The little hand squeezed back.

“Hee-hee. The whole thing is absurd, don’t you think? This little one came along without any help from the meaningless research conducted by the Fourth. And then she met me, of all people. It seems, to me, a little bit like fate.”

The little hand that had gripped Manon’s swung up and down energetically.

“Well, please give it your best, Ms. Menou. Unlike me…this girl is going to be far too much for you to handle.”

Those became her last words.

The other hand broke through her ribs and burst out of her body.

The two hands tore mercilessly through Manon’s abdomen. Her ribcage opened wide, spilling her organs onto the floor and filling the room with the stench of fresh blood.

Manon’s body was opened from the inside out, like the door of an iron maiden.

“Phew!”

A cherubic little face emerged from Manon’s broken remains.

The girl who had crawled out of Manon’s stomach gulped in air like a newborn fawn and stretched out her limbs.

She looked as sweet as a baby. Her round face didn’t show even a trace of malice as she squinted into the sunlight pouring in through the broken walls.

“Wow, the sky’s so big and blue! The weather is so nice today!”

The girl stretched her arms out wide, celebrating the day with a sunny smile.

She had elegant features and the posture of a properly raised young lady, despite her age. The dress she was wearing had probably been pure-white at one time, though now it was dyed completely red with Manon’s blood. She reached her hand out toward the sky with an innocent expression.

“Just look how sunny it is outside. It’s going to be a great day for sure! Don’t you think—? Aww, that’s right. I guess you’re dead, huh?”

The girl, who looked no older than ten, had black hair and equally dark eyes.

Those jet-black eyes and hair could only mean one thing. The girl whose small frame was covered in flesh and blood looked down at the body of Manon, who had died as she crawled out of her body. She spoke in a soft, loving tone.

“Thank you for everything. You gave me a decent number of sacrifices. You can rest now.”

Then the little girl looked up at Menou and clapped a hand to her mouth.

“Oh my! There’s a new person here.”

As the girl expressed her surprise in a way that was both polite and somehow very calculated, Menou thought she recognized her round face.

She’d seen it in the scripture conjuring Momo recorded.

The girl looked exactly like the one Momo had found trapped in the iron maiden. The very same little girl who had supposedly breathed her last in the embrace of that torture device now waved at Menou brightly.

The blood-soaked little girl spoke with an innocent smile.

“Hi there, lady. How’s that pink-haired girl from yesterday doing?” she asked.