Tragedy
“Hah... hah...”
“H-hard...”
Having barely escaped, May and Lucia slumped onto the edge of a nearby fountain, struggling to catch their breath.
As the tension finally began to drain away, their sweat glands opened like floodgates. They ended up buying a couple of towels from a nearby stall just to wipe themselves down.
“I-is he going to be okay?”
Lucia fretted over Sen. May told her not to worry.
“That guy’s ridiculously strong. From what I saw earlier, he’s more than capable of handling it.”
Besides, the assassin still hadn’t come after them. That either meant the fight wasn’t over yet—or that Sen had already won.
“How did he even know?”
How had he realized the two of them were being chased? May shrugged off her jacket, draped it over her arm, and scrubbed the back of her neck with the towel.
“If it’s the Execution Squad, Sen can spot them instantly.”
“Ah, shit—!”
Elise’s face suddenly popped into view. May reflexively flung the towel at her.
The towel smacked Elise square in the face with a soft thwack. The gentle smile she’d been wearing cracked ever so slightly.
“My, my. Looking to get yourself punished, are we? I’m already regretting helping you.”
“Sorry about that. No—I just got startled and reacted on instinct.”
May took the towel back and offered an awkward apology. Elise wiped her face with a handkerchief and let out a sigh.
“That young lady is a nun of Helios, isn’t she? One of the Saintess candidates this time.”
“Yeah. How’d you know that, too?”
May’s look of mild amazement made Elise feel a little smug, though she kept her tone even as she continued.
“We need to get her back to the Grand Cathedral immediately. Outside is extremely dangerous right now. There’s a very dangerous person targeting her.”
“Targeting... me?”
“Must be another Saintess candidate.”
May’s blunt guess made Elise hesitate for a moment. Then she sighed and nodded.
“A nun who serves the Goddess Demeter. There’s an extremely powerful figure backing her. I can’t say who, but keep that much in mind.”
That was already more than enough for Lucia. The thought that another nun serving a different god was after her sent a chill of fear through her—yet as a fellow nun and Saintess candidate, she couldn’t simply let it slide.
“Return to the Grand Cathedral at once. This is as far as I can help you.”
“Yes. Thank you so very much.”
“I’ll take her.”
Leaving Elise’s assistance behind, Lucia and May headed back toward the Grand Cathedral. The distance wasn’t far; a brisk pace would get them there quickly.
Once the two of them were gone, Elise stretched with a long sigh.
She had done everything she could to obstruct the plans of her older brother—First Prince Oliver de Frisia—and she had succeeded, after a fashion.
On the surface she pretended to aid Prince Oliver; behind the scenes she quietly sabotaged him.
Because the prince was on the move, she had asked Sen—who was in the same year—to check whether the Execution Squad was involved.
Sen knew their habits better than anyone, so spotting the enemy’s pursuit had been easy.
By now Sen should have taken care of them easily enough.
She had even sent her own maid, Bertia, along as backup. There was no way Sen could have lost. Elise strolled leisurely toward the alley where Sen had been fighting.
“Huh...?”
Blood flooded the alley as if the ground itself were tilted, flowing without end.
It finally reached the tip of Elise’s shoe at the alley’s mouth.
“You’ve arrived.”
There stood the servant Penicilla, and at her feet lay two people.
Sen and Bertia.
Taken down by Penicilla?
Oliver’s servant Penicilla was skilled, certainly—but Bertia, former leader of the Dark Division, should have held the clear edge in ability.
“It wasn’t me. Another member of the Execution Squad handled them. I merely came to clean up.”
“...!”
“His Highness said that if it was the princess, you would surely help your friends. That no matter how cold you pretend to be, you have a soft heart.”
“Are you saying you were watching me?”
How dare they dig into the Third Princess’s movements and set a trap like this?
But Penicilla answered without the slightest change in expression, utterly impassive.
“Surely you didn’t truly believe Prince Oliver needed anything from you, Princess. He is perfect entirely on his own.”
“I... had forgotten, after so long, what kind of man my brother is.”
She thought she should have been more careful—but she already knew it was too late.
The very act of summoning her to Oliver’s hotel room had been the trap.
He had pretended to bring her onto his side while searching for the perfect way to bind her. It was exactly like a swordsman deliberately exposing a weakness to invite a counterattack.
Even if she had realized it, Elise would still have moved the same way. May and the other students might have been in danger—and if that happened, Daniel would grieve.
“It wasn’t that you were incompetent, Princess. On the contrary, because you are wise, His Highness deliberately mixed truth and lies with exquisite care. He told you about the Demeter nun, so of course you would fall for it.”
Oliver had shown her multiple pieces of evidence that he had been supporting the Demeter nun for a very long time. Elise had had no choice but to believe him.
He had genuinely intended to make the Demeter nun the Saintess in this election.
“Come with me. His Highness has graciously decided to show you mercy. Mercy for a traitor—truly a special exception, possible only because you share his blood.”
Penicilla’s needling words made Elise bite her lip hard and clutch her skirt tightly. Beyond that, there was nothing she could do.
Ah, Daniel... I’m sorry.
This is as far as I go.
“The second you see that Demeter nun bitch, start by punching her in the face.”
“Huh? But that’s a bit...”
Lucia’s reaction made May thump her own chest in frustration.
“Hey, she hired someone to kill you. A punch is getting off light. If it were me, I’d grab a bat and turn her into paste.”
“I-I’ll try...”
With that, the two of them stepped onto the long bridge. Once they crossed it, the Grand Cathedral was right there. May hesitated a moment, then spoke with a smile.
“Still, it was fun.”
As if being chased by an assassin could ever be fun. Lucia knew it was May’s way of telling her not to feel burdened, so she offered a faint smile in return.
“You know, May, you’d actually look pretty good as a nun.”
“Blech, me?”
May made a gagging motion, insisting she’d never once considered it—yet she thought it over.
“Nun habits are kinda sexy, though, right?”
“H-hey! What kind of thing are you saying in front of a nun?!”
“What? Guys always say nun outfits are secretly hot. I think it’s the gap. A pure, chaste nun who’s actually sexy. That kind of thing.”
“M-May!”
“Heh heh. Think Daniel would like a nun outfit?”
She was just saying she’d be willing to wear one if he did—when her foot stepped into empty air.
Their center of gravity pitched forward. Only a few seconds later did the two girls realize they had fallen from the bridge.
“Lucia!”
May snatched Lucia into her arms and hit the river that cut through the city of Vatian with her back.
The splash of the two girls hitting the water drew startled stares from people nearby. The truly shocking part was that no one walking on the bridge had noticed the two girls falling at all.
“Pwah!”
“May!”
May still hadn’t fully recovered from the impact, but this time Lucia was the one who held her and swam them both to the riverbank beneath the bridge.
“Hah... hah! May! Are you okay?”
“Cough!”
She was coughing up water, but she hadn’t lost consciousness. Lucia hugged her tightly.
“Ah, Helios...”
Offering genuine thanks to Helios, Lucia checked May’s face. It was pale, but the faint smile that said “don’t worry” let her breathe a sigh of relief—
“My, what a surprise. A nun who swims so well. You must have played in the streams a lot as a child?”
It was the first time a voice had carried such sticky, ominous weight. It felt like a spider crawling across the nape of her neck, spinning its web.
Even under the bridge she carried a black parasol over one shoulder and wore a black lace dress—the very picture of a lady—smiling down at the two of them.
“Shit, Lucia—run!”
Even though her body couldn’t have been in good shape, May scrambled up, grabbed Lucia’s hand, and shouted.
“That woman walked right past us just before we fell off the bridge!”
A chill raced down Lucia’s spine. A woman who had performed some bizarre feat that even the falling girls themselves hadn’t noticed—and now she was already down here under the bridge?
Was she a ghost? The woman covered her mouth and let out a soft, tinkling laugh.
“Do you think you can escape?”
“...”
“I could take your heads this very instant. Try thinking a little more wisely. You should be begging me for your lives—or negotiating.”
At the suggestion that there was room for talk, May and Lucia stopped. The woman’s skill was clearly on a level they couldn’t begin to measure.
If they ignored her and moved carelessly, their heads could fly off just as unnoticed as their fall from the bridge.
“Well then...”
The Lady was smiling, about to say something more, when a booming male voice crushed her words flat.
“May Flove!”
Did you know?
It’s an old cliché, but delinquents have always been especially fond of the space under bridges.
Especially in a city they’ve never visited before—finding their own sanctuary, their secret base, becomes the top priority.
Just like cockroaches naturally scuttling under a bed.
“Tellun-senpai?”
Fifth-year Fist King Tellun and his crew.
There were far more of them than when she’d run into them earlier in the city—fourth-years, and even a few third-years she recognized.
They’d been recruited?
It looked like they’d been talking about betraying her, but this was actually an opportunity.
May grabbed Lucia’s hand and dove straight into the middle of the group.
“Wha—?”
The delinquents were startled to find May suddenly wedged among them, but she grinned and shouted.
“Seniors! It’s that bitch! That double-crossing whore pointed at us and called us retards!”
“My, how vulgar.”
The Lady still didn’t drop her sly smile as she casually shifted her gaze toward the group.
May had her reasons for acting this way.
The assassin who’d thrown the dagger earlier, and this Lady now—
They both preferred to create spaces with no people nearby. In other words, there was some reason they couldn’t afford to involve bystanders.
She won’t just casually kill our students either.
May’s prediction hit the mark.
Someone of the Lady’s caliber could have torn straight through the human wall and dragged May Flove and Lucia out—but she simply kept smiling.
Reaching the far side of the group, May grinned at Lucia, whose cheeks were squished between bodies.
“Run straight to the Grand Cathedral right now, got it?”
“M-May!”
“Hey, I’ve gotta hold that bitch off. I’ll buy you enough time to reach the cathedral.”
“But then—!”
May hugged Lucia and said,
“She can’t kill me. You can tell just by looking—she’s only after you.”
“May...”
“Once you make it into the Grand Cathedral, we win. And when you get there, make sure you punch that Demeter nun for me.”
Lucia hugged May back just as tightly.
“I will. Absolutely. It was only a short time, but thank you so much. I hope we meet again. My delinquent friend.”
“Go already.”
Wiping away her tears, Lucia sprinted toward the Grand Cathedral. She knew it too—once she escaped, all of this would be over.
That was why she had no choice but to make the heart-rending decision to leave her friend behind.
“Hey, what the hell are you doing?”
Tellun stomped over, irritated.
He raised a fist, ready to thrash May on the spot, but she just smirked and pointed past his shoulder.
“Do you really think you have time for that right now?”
“What?”
“The crazy bitch is coming.”
The Lady, who had been giving a small round of applause for what she called a rather entertaining melodrama, was slowly approaching them.
“Lucia?”
The moment Lucia entered the Grand Cathedral she ran into the priest who had been waiting for her—but she ignored him and strode deeper inside.
“Lu-Lucia! Those are the other nuns’ rooms! You can’t just go in there!”
Until the election began, the nuns were forbidden from seeing one another’s faces or learning one another’s names. Acting this recklessly was not allowed—
But Lucia had long since given up on becoming Saintess.
Granting her delinquent friend’s wish mattered more than any Saintess title.
Prepare yourself for at least a bloody nose.
The priest’s voice chasing after her only made Lucia’s steps faster. She clenched the rosary around her neck and threw open the door marked with the emblem of the Goddess Demeter.
“You—!”
She had been ready to confront the woman immediately—but what greeted her was a thick, metallic stench that hit her all the way to the back of her nose.
Blood so copious it stung the eyes had soaked the neatly laid carpet and even the nun’s habit that was supposed to remain pure and spotless.
“Huh?”
The Demeter rosary hanging from the neck.
A face frozen in endless terror and despair.
The nun lying spread-eagled, a dagger buried between her ample breasts.
The Demeter nun was already dead.
“What... in the world is...?”
She turned, about to tell the priest who had followed her that something was terribly wrong—
“Child, you should have known when to stop.”
The Helios priest who had come to Vatian with her clamped a handkerchief over Lucia’s mouth. A sharp chemical scent filled her senses, and Lucia collapsed unconscious.