5
On the top floor of the Pleiades Watchtower, Emilia said:
“—Someone’s handprints?”
Emilia murmured this as she stood in front of the central pillar.
Her purple eyes widened as she looked at the six handprints pressed into the surface of the monolith. They were all different sizes.
She didn’t know whose they were. But if they intentionally left their handprints together like that, then they must have been friends and connected with this tower somehow…
“? Wait, this is…”
As she thought that, Emilia felt something off about one of the handprints.
The one closest to the edge—and the one next to it that was a similar size. Those two were clearly smaller than the others. She guessed they were women’s hands.
And the one that caught her attention was…
“This is…my handprint…?”
Furrowing her brow, she looked down at her own right hand.
It didn’t make sense, but she couldn’t shake the feeling. One of the handprints on the monolith looked like hers.
“ ”
Inhaling, Emilia faced the monolith. And to answer the question in her head, she reached out her right hand…
“—Thou who hath reached the tower’s peak, petitioner of omnipotence who treads upon the first floor.”
“—Whah?! It’s back!”
Just before she could touch the monolith, a stern voice fell down on Emilia from above.
Looking up, she could see Volcanica’s wings were flapping as the dragon descended to the highest floor.
“ ”
Turning away from the monolith, Emilia faced the Holy Dragon again.
It had been rough climbing up the pillar, but if things continued here, it would be difficult. The top floor was smaller than the first floor, and it would be hard to move around.
“And it would be really bad if the monolith was broken…”
The handprint felt familiar, but it also seemed likely to be related to the examination.
Emilia readied herself to protect it to the last. And looking down at her, Volcanica’s golden eyes narrowed. Its mouth opened to unleash a breath that would leave everything in cinders—
“…Why art thou here?”
“Eh?”
—However, what fell upon her wasn’t a fiery breath, but a question.
It was so unexpected that Emilia was taken by surprise. Because it wasn’t the same thing Volcanica had been repeating ever since she’d reached the first floor.
It was a question brought forth from the Holy Dragon’s own mind.
“Have you come to your senses? Then can you talk about other things? There’s a lot I want to talk about! Like the examination, or how to change the rules!”
Catching a glimpse of hope, Emilia immediately fired back.
“Hey, please! Let’s have a proper—”
“Hopping around so wildly. What would ye do shouldst thou fall? Were the worst to happen, it is I who would be scolded. Since none can match thee.”
“Volcanica…?”
Worried about everyone in the tower, Emilia pleaded desperately with Volcanica, who again said something other than its repeated message. However, it didn’t sound like a response to what she had said, either, and her bewilderment deepened.
But there was a distinctly peaceful tinge to Volcanica’s golden eyes looking down at her.
That warmth was wholly unlike the vague distance earlier.
It was gentle and peaceful. Affectionate, even…
“Where did Flugel and Reid go? Shaula will be sad if they leave without saying anything. And Falseil will stir up a clamorous fuss.”
Volcanica continued, still looking gently down at Emilia.
The dragon had a gaze as if seeing something long past, saying the names Flugel, Reid, Shaula, and one other…
Emilia couldn’t say for sure who it was without asking their family name, but it sounded familiar. If her memory wasn’t playing tricks on her.
“Falseil, as in Falseil Lugunica? The king from four hundred years ago?”
That was a name she had encountered many times in her studies for the royal selection.
Falseil Lugunica—the thirty-fifth ruler of the Kingdom of Lugunica, who ruled the country four hundred years ago during the age of the Witch. The last Lion King who formed the covenant with Holy Dragon Volcanica and led Lugunica into its golden age.
“ ”
Emilia glanced at the monolith behind her.
The six handprints. If they had anything to do with what Volcanica was saying, then would four of them be Flugel, Reid, Shaula, and Falseil? The other two were unclear, but one of them was presumably the one whose handprint matched Emilia’s.
“Did I…forget something else besides my forest family?!”
That was the first suspect, since Emilia had sealed away her own memories once before. Had she maybe somehow wandered here and left her handprint, and then forgotten all about it?
“…No, that can’t be it. If only Puck were here. He would know whether I’d been here before or not.”
“—What dost trouble you?”
“Ah, ummm, I’m fine. Thank you for your concern, though. Thanks, but…”
In the end, it was questionable whether she could really talk with Volcanica, and so she was a bit troubled.
Thinking about what she should do…
“Please speak if thou art troubled. Allow us to remove thy anguish, Satella.”
—She caught her breath at being called that.
“ ”
It wasn’t the first time she had been called that. A half-elf with silver hair and purple eyes. Many people in this world who saw Emilia associated her with the same person.
However, it was odd hearing Volcanica speak the name Satella with affection in its voice.
Because Volcanica, Reid, and Flugel, who pushed credit for all his achievements onto Shaula, were the very ones who had sealed away Satella, the Witch of Jealousy.
“Why are you speaking so kindly to the Witch of Jealousy?”
It was a question spoken in wonder.
It would have been a rough ask to demand Emilia realize it in that moment, but at the very least, looking objectively, that phrase was what set things off.
“…The Witch of Jealousy.”
—That phrase caused a change in Volcanica’s distant gaze.
There was a dramatic transformation in those golden eyes.
Raised in the woods, Emilia had experience in the wild. She had seen many animals and demon beasts who underwent a similar sort of change. And so she instinctively lowered her head.
—The next instant, the air right where her head had been exploded.
Space itself had been compressed, then after it swelled back up, everything exploded.
If she had been even a split second slower to duck, she would have died.
Whether it was the tail swipe earlier, this spatial distortion, or climbing the tower, Emilia had been through many brushes with death.
But this was perhaps the most dangerous one yet.
“But everything managing to work out means I might be really lucky right now…!”
Emilia interpreted the situation in a positive light as she slipped away from the dragon with a swift movement.
If she didn’t stay positive, she might have collapsed because of all the changes going on around her.
Because…
“Satella.”
Volcanica spread its wings again, facing her with unmistakable hostility.
Just when it had seemed like it had come to its senses, the Holy Dragon had changed back. Not just back. It looked even more ready to fight than before.
“Icicle Line.”
That meant there was no need for Emilia to hold back. She unleashed her magic power with renewed determination.
The air cracked from the cold, and a white fog began to form. Even if this was the top floor high above the clouds, she still froze the world white around her.
With a crack, an ice weapon slowly formed out of the ground. Drawing that spear, Emilia spun it around and thrust it forward.
“But…”
Looking straight into her opponent’s golden eyes, she wanted to believe that Volcanica’s response was a misunderstanding and a case of mistaken identity, since Volcanica’s eyes were filled with such grief-stricken sorrow.
“Satella. Right, Satella. We must stop thou who wert reduced to the Witch of Jealousy.”
“…Were you friends?”
“Had we not hesitated that day. Had we not hesitated, no one…”
It didn’t answer her question. But Volcanica’s trembling voice sounded like an answer nonetheless.
The dragon inhaled deeply, preparing another breath that would scorch the world.
Emilia stepped in, to hit that white scale before it came. If she couldn’t do that, there would be no saving her or anyone else.
“—Subaru, Beatrice, Ram, Rem, Meili, Patrasche, Echidna, Julius, Anastasia, Shaula.”
She thought of everyone who was going through such a difficult time in the tower. Everyone she had to help, everyone who raised their heads with the same goal as she had.
Doing that, a swell of power that she didn’t know welled up inside her breast.
“Witch of Jealousy, Satella!!!”
“No, you’re wrong. I’m Emilia, the Freezing Witch of the Great Elior Forest.”
Emilia poured the new strength all through her body and answered the Holy Dragon, who was apparently mistaking her for someone who looked similar.
The enemy was the Holy Dragon, but what of it? She had everyone with her.
So…
“—If nothing else, please remember that name!”
The final phase of the battle enveloping the Pleiades Watchtower began with an explosion of light above and below the clouds.
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