IV
The Courtyard at La Chaim Palace, Holy City of Elsphere
The glacia flowers that heralded the coming of winter were in full bloom. Sofitia, together with Lara, welcomed an unexpected visitor.
“I’m sorry to have kept you waiting.”
“’M thowwy we thow’dup tho thuhnwy.” Across from Sofitia, not giving so much as a glance to her host, Olivia sat shoveling into her mouth at alarming speed the baked goods Sofitia had ordered. Her cheeks were stuffed to bursting like a gray squirrel’s.
“You are as boorish as ever!” Lara snarled. She tried to snatch the sweets away from Olivia, but Sofitia stopped her, laughing.
“My dearest Olivia, you will always be welcome here. But what is this I hear about you coming alone? I don’t suppose you have come around to the idea of joining the Winged Crusaders?”
She did not seriously believe that Olivia would turn her back on the Royal Army, of course. This was Sofitia’s idea of a joke.
Olivia cleared her throat loudly. “I already found Z, so I won’t be joining your army,” she said, beaming. Sofitia smiled softly back at her.
“That is our loss. But you were reunited, were you? Is Z with you now?” Sofitia asked smoothly. Olivia gave a small shake of her head. There was a hint of loneliness in her face, but from her demeanor, it did not seem as though her parting from Z had been a final one.
It didn’t sound as though a reunion would be possible before. But with this, perhaps I can use Olivia as an intermediary to make contact with Z, Sofitia thought. Just then, Olivia slipped a letter bearing the royal seal of Fernest onto the table.
“I came here to give you this,” Olivia explained. She had the vague feeling Sofitia was about to say something tiresome, so she decided to wrap up her task there quickly.
Sofitia looked down at the official letter and frowned. “Has something befallen King Alfonse?”
“They said he’s sick,” Olivia replied shortly.
“Sick? But he seemed very well when we met at the banquet...”
Sofitia could ask all she liked, but Olivia really didn’t have anything else she could tell her. She genuinely knew nothing other than that he was sick, and besides, in her mind he was just the man who’d given her an enormous, towering cake. In other words, she wasn’t interested.
“Since when have I cared about kings, right?”
“Don’t say that like we know anything about it,” Lara snapped, exasperated.
Sofitia laughed softly. “In any case, let us see what it says.”
In the time it took for her to finish reading the letter, Olivia asked for three fresh cups of tea. Each time, she received a clear tsk from Lara.
Sofitia laid the finished letter down on the table with a grave expression. “It is a very bold plan you have come up with. Was this your idea, Olivia? Or was it Ashton’s?”
Words caught in Olivia’s throat for a moment. “It wasn’t either of us,” she managed eventually. “But seeing as a drawn-out battle with the undead puts them at an advantage, I think it makes sense. I know Twin Lions at Dawn flopped, but we’ve still got an alliance, right?”
“I cannot see any reason to continue with our alliance after the failure of that operation,” Sofitia said. Lara nodded fervently in agreement.
“So you’re breaking it off? Is that really what you want? Or is this a tactical thing?”
A sharp gleam entered Sofitia’s eyes at this. “Whatever makes you think it might be?”
“Well, I saw the Winged Crusaders fighting the undead. I thought you had to know I was there. Didn’t you?”
Sofitia broke out in an open smile. “My dear Olivia, how very wicked of you. If you were watching, whyever didn’t you say so from the start? But if that is how it is, then I should be glad to continue our alliance.”
“My Seraph?!” Lara cried, just as Olivia said, “Then it’s a deal.”
She shook hands with Sofitia, then realized Lara was looking at her murderously and let out a little groan.
“Did you just groan? Who do you think you are? As a messenger, it behooves you to behave with the utmost courtesy, yet from the start, your behavior toward the seraph has been more than I can bear. You are entirely out of line.”
“But we’re friends...” Olivia pointed out tentatively. “Friends don’t have to be polite...”
In response to this, Lara’s face turned scarlet, her eyes bulged, and her eyebrows turned down in the most dramatic scowl Olivia had ever seen. It reminded her of Claudia when she turned into a yaksha.
“Y-You dare call the holy seraph your friend?! Insolent cur!”
“Um...” Olivia, getting the sense that Lara was inches away from drawing her sword, looked to Sofitia for assistance. A smile played around Sofitia’s lips as she nodded.
“It is certainly true that Olivia and I are friends. Olivia, you need not worry about how you speak to me.”
Olivia turned to Lara with an enormous smirk. “See?”
Lara’s whole body quivered with fury, but at last, the tension went out of her, and she let out a deep sigh. “My Seraph, I can’t even tell whose side you’re on...”
“Why, that’s obvious,” Sofitia said, clearly enjoying herself. “I am on your side, Lara, but I am also on Olivia’s side.”
“My Seraph...”
Olivia, having gotten her confirmation that the alliance would continue, stood up. “I’ll head off home, then.”
“You’re leaving so soon?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, this is rather a predicament. My chefs have been cooking up a storm in the kitchens ever since they learned of your arrival.”
“No! Really?”
“Oh, yes. They say cooking for someone who takes as much pleasure in food as you do is a reward in and of itself.”
Visions of all sorts of dishes flashed through Olivia’s mind. It was such a tempting proposal that for a moment she thought it might be all right to stay a little—
No! Stop it! Olivia slammed the lid down on the creeping tendrils of her desires. “I-I’m actually really busy...” she said, hearing her voice cracking.
“You are? Well, that’s too bad. Another time, then,” Sofitia replied, backing down at once.
Olivia stared hard at her. “Next time, for sure,” she said. She was just feeling proud of herself for resisting such a sweet temptation when she remembered she hadn’t told Sofitia the most important part.
“Keep an eye out for a messenger from us soon.”
“You mean you’re not the messenger?!” Lara’s shout echoed emptily around the courtyard.
Lara glared at the corridor Olivia had left by for a while, then she turned to Sofitia, who was daintily sipping her tea.
“Why are we continuing with the alliance?”
“Why, because the situation has changed,” Sofitia replied, then added, “Dramatically so.”
“Even so, promising an unconditional surrender after one defeat is insanity.” She might have been able to understand if it had only been Mekia in question, but the thought of tying their fate to that of Fernest, now indisputably on its last legs after the loss of the Invincible General and the God of the Battlefield, and Sutherland, lost in dreams of sloth and indolence, filled Lara with despair. As commander of the Winged Crusaders, it was intolerable.
Sofitia returned her teacup to its saucer, smiling softly. “The undead have risen, in defiance of all reason. This world has already gone mad. Perhaps Fernest’s plan is reckless, but don’t you think it is well worth trying?”
“Even if it could mean the ruin of our nation?”
“If we fail here, all it means is that no matter what path we chose, this was always our time. No one can live forever,” Sofitia answered without hesitation. As Lara watched her, an ominous thought passed through her mind.
“My Seraph, do you doubt the strength of the Winged Crusaders?”
“I have never entertained so much as a shadow of such a doubt. Do not ask me that again.” Sofitia’s face was calm, but there was an intensity in her lilac eyes that brooked no argument.
“Understood, My Seraph. I shall make sure I do not,” said Lara. “In that case—” She was about to continue, but what Sofitia said next made her words die in her throat.
“That being said, I am anticipating the worst.”
“The worst...?” An image of crustaceasects assaulting the holy city rose to the front of Lara’s mind. “You think that is possible?”
“One would struggle to find a reason to rule it out. Olivia knows that too. I imagine that is why she was so confident in negotiating.”
“That was my fault. But even if the worst should come to pass, with the combined might of the Winged Crusaders, it shouldn’t be impossible to repel...”
Her own voice betrayed her, growing weaker and weaker as she spoke, making her words seem uncertain.
“You have more than demonstrated your resolve, Lara. But it is not always a bad thing to surrender to where fate takes you.” Sofitia spoke comfortingly, and Lara felt her ears grow hot. “At any rate, Olivia would not go into battle unless she had a plan. I wish to see with my own eyes what it is that she intends to do.”
“To be honest, she doesn’t appear to me to think about anything other than her stomach. She is skilled, though, I admit.”
“That is because you only see her through your own biases. If you change your point of view, your way of thinking, that which once was hidden to you will become visible.”
“If I may speak plainly—I don’t want to understand her.”
“You are determined to remain stubborn. But then, you always were, Lara.” Sofitia smiled a little hopelessly. But a moment later, the smile was gone. In its place was Sofitia the warrior.
“The Holy Land of Mekia is about to plunge into a maelstrom. Blessed Wing Lara, ready the Winged Crusaders to march at a moment’s notice.”
“Yes, My Seraph!” Lara dropped fluidly to her knees. She had her orders. As a servant of the seraph, all that was left was for her to obey to the best of her ability. She could voice no more doubts now. Except—
“Would you tell me one thing, My Seraph? What do you see in Olivia?” Lara asked as Sofitia and her guards rose to leave.
Sofitia stopped. “I see a will that does not bend,” she said, then walked from the courtyard, her staff ringing as she went.
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