I Bid Farewell
From the open ground beside our house came the familiar ring of swinging blades today as well, dust billowing in hazy clouds every time feet flicked deftly across the packed earth.
If anything differed from the usual, it was that it wasn't just Paula and me anymore — more than a dozen people had gathered.
"Paula. This time, let's assume a situation where you're surrounded by multiple enemies. Begin."
"Yes, ma'am."
Paula swept the leg of a cultist creeping up behind her and sent him tumbling. Seizing the gap as the encirclement collapsed, she darted swiftly toward the wall of the cave.
"Get up! Form the perimeter!"
"Yes, sir!"
At my command, the low-ranking cultists charged at Paula. But now protected at the back by the wall, she blocked their attacks with composed ease as she shifted position.
"Everyone, spread out!"
Rushing through the path that opened as the cultists withdrew, I swung my spear at Paula.
CLANG—!
"Hah, you've gotten faster."
A heavy spear with a broad blade resembling a bull's horns. Close in form to a knight's lance, it must have carried considerable weight — yet Paula deflected it with the barest movement, distributing her strength with perfect economy.
"Pursue her!"
The cultists who had fallen back renewed their chase of Paula. A few hurled nets and bolas at her legs, but she batted them away with her sword or leapt nimbly clear of danger.
In a fight of one against many, you either flee to safety or move toward a favorable position, at the very least. She understood my teachings exactly, and acted on them.
"Good judgment. But you're still half-baked!"
I bent my knees slightly and gathered my strength, and the Colossus's blessing began to swirl through my legs.
THOOM—!
A single leap shattered the ground, and I hurled myself toward Paula's flank. This one she couldn't block, I could tell she thought so too — she bounded backward to evade the spear and immediately set herself for a counterattack.
Taking a thrusting stance, Paula closed the distance with quick, measured steps.
"Right. Get in close, and a spear becomes hard to handle."
Good thinking — but it seemed she'd forgotten the gulf in raw strength between us. I let the spear fall, slipped inside her guard while dodging the sword thrusting at my shoulder, and my clenched fist slammed into Paula's stomach.
WHAM!
"Gyah—!"
Paula's eyes went wide and she retched up bile. Her stance collapsed completely, her sword slicing feebly through empty air. Without letting that opening slip, I seized her by the nape of the neck.
"Class dismissed."
"…I lost."
Paula let out a frustrated sigh and slid her sword back into its sheath.
"You're still weak at improvising."
"You're just exceptional, Lady Antares. Hardly anyone in the world can hit this hard with their bare fists."
"The world is wide and the strong are many. None of that feeble talk — start thinking about how you'll improve!"
Instead, I flew into a temper and hammered my fist down on Paula's head. With a faint cry, she crumpled to the ground.
"I'm… sorry…."
"Get up. Sparring practice ends here."
I left Paula, who couldn't even rise yet, and headed back to the house first. From behind me came the sound of her scrambling to catch up.
"I'm sorry, okay? So please just calm down…."
"You're so mean. You didn't have to hit me that hard! Bad. Bad. Bad."
Though I apologized over and over, Paula kept pouting and lightly thumping my stomach. It was rather comical, the way she refused to leave my arms even while scolding me — but she was still angry, and laughing would only make it worse. I composed my expression and gently stroked her hair.
"Out there, we have to look every bit the master and disciple. The cult is expert at taking something precious and holding it hostage."
"I know that, but…."
"Paula. Before long, we'll be going outside."
At those words, Paula stopped hitting my stomach and looked up at me with a suddenly grave expression.
"Today's one-against-many drill was something I needed to test. But the ones who volunteered to help with your training were all… the West Guardian Star's underlings, weren't they."
"They came to spy on us."
"Yes. The Cult Leader is definitely suspicious of us."
"…Shall we strike first?"
"I think so. The South Guardian Star, who set out hunting three days ago, will be returning. Moving before that gives us the better odds. Let's act tomorrow night."
Paula nodded. Every time a Guardian Star dies, the barrier weakens. So we had to kill as many Guardian Stars as possible, and Paula would unmake the barrier.
The targets: East and West. Each of us would take one, dispatch them quickly, and rendezvous at the northern gate.
If everything goes smoothly, that's how it will play out….
But the Cult Leader excels at schemes. For all I knew, the story about the South Guardian Star leaving the compound was a lie too.
He might even be secretly conducting the ritual tonight, offering up Paula.
If a variable arises and I can't kill the Guardian Stars, then at that moment….
I would have to die. I, too, am a Guardian Star — my life force feeds the barrier. It's the last resort, but I had best steel myself for it.
"Paula. The South Guardian Star is strong. If you end up facing her… you'll need to be at a level capable of killing me as I am now. Can you do it?"
"I won't kill you."
"Is that you won't kill me? Or that you can't?"
Paula had sparred with me many times by now. She'd faced even the strongest weapons I could bring to bear. She knew the gap in our abilities as well as anyone could.
"If I use holy power, I can probably win most of the time. Libra and Leo would be rough, though…. If Scorpio comes out, there's no way I could ever win."
"I see. The South Guardian Star fights in a way similar to me when I use Leo. Keep that in mind."
"…Lady Antares. You're not planning to die, are you?"
For an instant it felt like swallowing the edge of a blade — then I steered the conversation onward with a brazen lie.
"Where would I go, leaving you behind?"
"Are the troops ready?"
The Cult Leader asked the East Guardian Star, who had spent a long while marshaling the forces.
"Yes. Both the southern and eastern units have completed their preparations. The South Guardian Star will return shortly through the secret passage."
"You understand the schedule is six days from now?"
"Yes. The assault is to be carried out six days hence, with the South Guardian Star positioned as its core—"
"I am moving the deadline up. We execute immediately, today."
"The South Guardian Star's arrival will be delayed, then."
"There is a way around that."
The East Guardian Star bowed his head at once and received the order.
"The assault begins with the West Guardian Star and her troops at its center. You will protect the ritual while I conduct it."
"The West Guardian Star alone cannot win."
"We will offer up her blood and the blood of the cultists to summon the South Guardian Star. That one has lived long enough. It's time she died."
"Yes."
The cultists render absolute obedience to the Cult Leader. And so not a single soul around him remained who would speak the truth to his face. No one could stop the Cult Leader in his haste — blinded by the euphoria of a goal he had waited long ages to finally achieve.
As on any other day, I woke with an aching pain in my chest. After confirming that Paula was asleep, I picked up a wooden pail and headed for the kitchen. An ordinary morning, the same routine as always — but threaded through it was one irregularity.
"Why did the directive come now?"
I took out the silver bracelet I kept at the bedside. It was a terminal that announced the constellation of the day, and also a portable vault storing countless weapons. The constellations renewed a while after dawn. Never once had they updated before daybreak.
"…Mom. Are we fighting?"
Written in the directive was a form of address I hadn't heard in an age. And a sensation that turned the blood in my spine to ice. I hurriedly strapped on the bracelet and shouted with everything I had.
"Paula!! Wake up!"
CRASH!
Along with the sound of the small figurine on the table shattering, a massive executioner's scythe swept through the exact spot where my spine had been a heartbeat before. A single stroke carved through the wall and reduced the furniture to wreckage.
"Antares…. It's been a while, hasn't it?"
A woman with short black hair glared at me with bloodshot, murderous red eyes.
"Master — no, Acrab. Your skin's gotten worse, hasn't it?"
"You little bitch—"
The West Guardian Star. Acrab. Formerly the North Guardian Star — and my former master.
An old hag who had joined the Red Cult in pursuit of eternal youth. But once her age passed three digits, the traces of aging that even the Colossus's blessing could not erase had begun creeping across her body.
"A night raid, out of nowhere. Did the Cult Leader order it?"
"You will address him as the Holy Leader, you manners-lacked brat!!"
"You know frowning gives you more wrinkles, right?"
"You…! Writhing and sniping this whole time. Fine. Let's see if you can keep that smirk when I'm carving this girl limb from limb. Seize the Saintess!"
"YES!!"
At Acrab's call, cultists came flooding in through the windows and the doors, weapons raised. At the same time, a massive scythe cut between Paula and me.
"You didn't think I'd fail to anticipate even this, did you? Paula. Now — blow it away."
"Yes, ma'am!"
In that instant, Paula — roused from sleep by my call — kicked off the covers and erupted with light. The light that began pure white took in other hues in a heartbeat. The black of soot, the gray of smoke, the blazing crimson, the scarlet at its core.
Every one of those colors spread in all directions.
"F-Fire! GWAAAAAH!!"
"Retreat! Fall back, fall back! GYAAAAH!"
The cultists who had stormed the house — and those still trying to — were swept up in the vortex of flame and burned to ash in an instant. The crudely built walls and roof scattered into dust with them.
"Paula! Outside, now!"
"Yes!"
We leapt nimbly through the hole in the blackened, soot-stained ceiling and out into the open. The Cult Leader was sure to have laid some trick around the house — we had to put distance between us as fast as possible.
VMMMMMMM! KWA-BOOM—!!
Just as expected — the moment our feet touched the ground, the house detonated from its foundations and blew apart. In the conflagration billowing in every direction, the lingering aftertaste of foul, nauseating magic soaked thick into the air.
"When did you hide a magic scroll there?"
"I'm sorry. I should have noticed…."
"Save the apologies for later. Right now we have an obstacle in front of us to clear first."
An invisible barrier woven from murderous intent had risen in a circle around Paula, like the fence of a zoo enclosure — or the iron railing of an arena.
Behind the writhing red aura stood countless low-ranking cultists. And two men whose bloodlust burned distinctly darker than the rest.
"The Cult Leader… and the East Guardian Star."
"Antares. Your thoughts are far too easy to read."
"Well, of course — I only have to think the opposite of whatever you want. You vomit-inducing bastard."
Paula flinched at my foul language. Come to think of it, was this the first time she'd heard me curse?
"Hiding behind a pathetically amateur barrier of sanctity while you force the ritual through?"
"Just so. But what can you do, even knowing it? Everything you attempt is nothing but futile resistance."
The Cult Leader, preparing the ritual with his black magic, and the East Guardian Star standing guard over him — Aldebaran.
"Hey! Antares! Your opponent is me."
And Acrab, closing in on me with the surviving cultists in tow. Given that they'd launched the raid today, the tale of the South Guardian Star being away must have been a lie as well. She would appear soon enough.
"Right. So this is how it ends up."
The enemy: three Guardian Stars, countless low-ranking cultists, and a Cult Leader whose tricks were impossible to predict. Our forces were overwhelmingly outmatched.
"Lady Antares. I know the situation is dire, but still…."
"Paula. Promise me one thing."
"…Say it."
"No matter what happens from here — you will not stop. Promise me you'll escape from this place, even if you have to go alone."
Paula trembled, envisioning the future she hadn't yet had to face — but then, as if firming her resolve, she nodded.
"Okay… then. I… promise."
"You really are terrible at lying. Even so… thank you, Paula."
I looked down at the silver bracelet circling my wrist. A storm of emotions surged — and then I seized every one of them and buried them deep.
"At last, I can set you all free."
"Antares, you…! Don't tell me—?!"
For the first time, the Cult Leader's voice rose in genuine alarm. Acrab, who had been tightening the encirclement at her leisure, froze in place at his reaction. It bought me time.
[Antares. Place the children into that weapon.]
[…If I complete my penance, will I be able to come back?]
[I promise. When your task is done, we shall meet again. Until then, you will move only according to the directives delivered through this bracelet. Should you defy me… I will destroy the children's souls.]
An unqualified mother, and my master.
"Heavens. Align. Unbind."
The contract severed, and the threads of connection I had felt so faintly slipped away from my hand. And the shackles that had bound me dissolved into nothing.
"You would kill the children — to protect your Saintess?"
"That's right. I weighed the value of lives. Just as you taught me. And more than anything… you never intended to save my children in the first place!"
I had done exactly what the Cult Leader taught. But I would never teach it to Paula — never let her act on it. Here, I would cut the coil of tragedy at its root.
"So you all — it's time for you to bow your heads as well."
By my own will, I summoned the weapon I desired. To put a period to an atrocity that had spanned hundreds of years.
To judge a sinner such as me.
"Let the scales be tilted."
⟨ Libra ⟩
Light flared from the silver bracelet, and a massive executioner's axe settled into my grip.
"Acrab! Strike her down!!"
"Yes!"
Pressed back by the murderous aura, Acrab — who had stumbled into a cowering retreat — drove herself forward at the Cult Leader's goading, striking at my blind side. With a shriek of air-splitting speed, the massive scythe came flying in a supple, curving arc, aimed at the nape of my neck.
"It's time to pay the price. Me — and all of you."
The heavy executioner's axe swept across in a great horizontal arc.
Within the single unbroken line of that stroke fell the scythe's blade — and Acrab's arm.
And by the holy law of the heavens above, the wretched vermin of the earth below was severed from them both.