Chapter 3
Part 2
From time to time, my master would do this in his classroom lectures.
While he typically gave the air of someone who was well-grounded, every once in a while he would throw out some crazy conclusion out of the blue leaving his students completely dumbfounded. Normally, Flat would get overly excited, Svin would do his best to keep him restrained, and chaos and tragedy would ensue. This time, however, things went differently.
Sputtering uncontrollably, the self-styled spy Mick Grajilie was the first to complain.
"...whoa whoa, what do you mean by that?"
"I meant exactly what I said. This girl is the Princess of Gold, the one who Iselma called their Social Assembly to show off."
'Have you gone mad?' As much as we all wanted to say it, no one did.
After all, the words my master was speaking went far beyond madness.
Of course, she was the maid that was always alongside the Princess of Gold. But what possible train of thought could have led him to the conclusion that she herself was the Princess of Gold?
Atram spoke up for the rest of us.
"...you mean like that Jack in the Box Projection trick? But that only worked because it was working off of the Princess of Silver, because she resembled her so closely, right?"
Right.
Using the unique catalyst that was the Princess of Silver, Reines, Maio, and Islo combining their talents could only manage to create the illusion for a few seconds, but that was the Princess of Gold. There was no way the maid, who was so completely different, could have been used to accomplish the same thing. And though it hadn't been for especially long, the Princess of Gold had certainly appeared for longer than just a few seconds.
My master gave a small nod.
"Of course, the method is different. Rather, I didn't understand it for the longest time. After all, for the completion of the Princess of Gold, the timing was just all wrong...Flat."
"Yes yes, I wrote it all down here!" Raising a hand in the air, Flat held up a diagram.
Looking at that diagram, Reines blew onto Trimmau's arm. The arm dissipated under the magically-charged breath, becoming a faint mist covering the surroundings. After a short time, the mist took on a glow, lighting up to reproduce the pattern on that diagram in the air.
It was a horoscope.
A map of the heavens, showing the sun and moon that refused to meet.
One by one the orbits of the planets were drawn in, and in reaction to them, the ground plane changed. The fact the map didn't take into account the veracity of the heliocentric model - the fact it didn't draw the orbits of the planets strictly accurately was because what was important for magecraft was not the scientific understanding of the planets' movements, but the data recorded by observations of those movements.
"Considering the calibre of those gathered here, I'm sure you all already know the current state of the constellations." my master began, "Iselma's magecraft, the building of the Towers of the Sun and Moon, has been modelled with great precision after a spell built on the sun and moon. But if the Talisman Iselma and Galiasta were fighting over was used to perfect the Princess of Gold, then the timing just doesn't make sense. While Iselma acquired the Talisman roughly a month ago, the sun and moon haven't been in an auspicious alignment for several months."
So saying, he pointed to the sun and moon in the floating image.
In the first diagram, two stars were in the same place, while in the next they stood opposite each other.
"The best possible would be an eclipse at noon. A conjunction of the sun and moon, resting in the same place. Second best would be the sun and moon standing opposite, with Saturn - the star governing the art of creation - standing at 120 degrees. But neither of those have occurred in the past month."
"You..." Having long surpassed rage, Lord Byron's face had started turning sickly dark.
Right now, my master's explanation was akin to a polite dismantling of the Iselma magecraft. However, recklessly protesting now would just be confessing the truth of my master's words, making him an accomplice in its destruction. Nevermind Galiasta's violence, my master's words alone were sufficient torment.
"But, if something else stood took the place of the sun in the formula, there would be no problems."
"Oh? And what could have taken that place?" Completely absorbed, Atram leaned forward as he spoke. My master responded with the utmost politeness.
"In the exercise of magecraft, it is sometimes possible to exchange the position of the sun for one of the other planets. Venus is probably the most popular choice. After all, it is the brightest star in the sky. For this reason, Venus was feared as a god of ill luck in the Far East, and was even associated with the fallen angel Lucifer in the Bible. The Morning Star. The Evening Star. And the name Venus itself has roots leading back to the goddess Ishtar of Mesopotamia. As the star presiding over the concept of beauty, it would serve as a perfect replacement in this case, wouldn't it?"
"Lord El-Melloi II." From behind, the Princess of Silver softly asked from within her veil. "I don't understand how the issue of the Talisman and this are connected, but if this is the Princess of Gold, what was the corpse of my sister that we all saw? I believe it's even still in her room."
Though of course magecraft was laid over the room to preserve both the scene and the remains that lay within it, the Princess of Gold's body had been basically left as it was.
My master's response was calm and collected.
"Of course, that's the real Princess of Gold. But it wasn't the one that was shown at the Social Assembly."
Even I tilted my head to the side, confused.
The more he spoke, the less I understood. He wasn't revealing the whole picture to us, only giving us a single clue at a time. So far, I was completely unable to assemble those clues into something that made sense.
But of course, not everyone was as incompetent as I was.
"I see, I see..." Inorai's lips curled into a smile as she listened, lifting her freshly filled whisky glass to her lips. The one who was the same as my master - or rather, a true Lord unlike my master, had her face light up as she understood what my master was putting forth. "It was just cut up at random, wasn't it? Well, I can't say I'd do anything differently in their shoes."
"Precisely my thought," my master replied with a polite nod. "The actual Princess of Gold died long before the Social Assembly. That fact only came out after the display, when the preserved remains were discovered by accident."
"Wha...what on earth are you talking about?!" Lord Byron shouted, but my master's response was frigid.
"There's no point in keeping it hidden even now, is there, Lord Byron? Your chance at keeping it a secret was gone once Galiasta intervened. Even without a forensic analysis, anyone versed in that field of study could at least tell you that it's clear the time of death doesn't match up."
"...there's no way you could prove that," Byron, at a loss for words, still desperately hung on. "As such, I would request you refrain from impinging on our honour with your wild delusions."
"Shall we ask for some testimony, then?" Saying so, my master turned around.
He turned to one in particular - a certain magus, one who stood out above all others, he pointed to the tabacco-wielding redhead.
"Wait, me? What's this about?" As if excited by the idea, Touko took a step forward.
Gently, my master touched the body at his feet. "I would like you to take a look at her."
"Hm. So according to you, this is the Princess of Gold that was displayed in the Social Assembly?" Touko asked, seeking confirmation.
To which my master gave a small nod. "Right. The Princess of Gold that made her debut here was this girl. The maid Caleena, who you gave plastic surgery to. Isn't that right, Touko Aozaki?"
Silence descended over the lobby.
Perhaps everyone was gauging the meaning of those words.
Plastic surgery. If you had said that the Princesses of Gold and Silver had undergone all sorts of procedures over generations, carving into their minds and bodies with various techniques in order to grasp that ultimate body, I could have understood it no problem. But the moment you switched that word out for 'plastic surgery,' it made an impact that was hard to describe.
"Well well," Touko laughed, clearly enjoying herself. "You think I used plastic surgery to turn her into the Princess of Gold? While I'm flattered, unfortunately I have no memory of doing so. Granted I don't have the best memory. Maybe I should get checked for Alzheimer's," she said, tapping her temple with a finger.
My master took a half step back, opening a space beside Caleena's body.
"At any rate, please take a look."
"Alright, don't mind me then." Kneeling down by the body, Touko began her inspection, looking around the lines of the cheeks and the back of the ears. "...hmm. Though minimal, there certainly does appear to be traces of surgery. If it was done by magical means, though it depends on the precise method used, there should only have been indirect signs of the procedure. After all, if healing magecraft was also involved, there would be no need for even needle and thread. In any case, there wouldn't be enough traces to be noticed in your everyday life."
She had no need of tools like my master did. With the air of a master who could see an error of a single micron in the grinding of a telescope's mirrors with the naked eye, she continued to trace various parts of the body with her finger.
After a while, she spoke again.
"Ah, seems I was mistaken. This is definitely my work."
At that, the whispers started up again.
As her expression became darker and darker, Touko spoke again. "But how did I forget something so important?"
"You didn't forget it at all, did you?" my master declared. "You just didn't remember doing it from the start."
"...oh?" Touko frowned. Not that she didn't understand, but in a way that showed she understood quite well.
Following that, my master continued by turning to another individual.
"Maio," he called to the pharmacist.
"Y-y-yes?"
"When you first met Reines, you were using some sort of medicine to feign drunkenness, is that right?"
At the time of the presentation of the Princesses.
Two magi from different factions in the Clock Tower got into a fight, and the atmosphere was getting bad. The dead drunk Maio stumbled in between them, 'accidentally' breaking up the fight before it could get any worse. In fact, that drunkenness was a result of medicine he had taken, and by taking a sobering medicine immediately after, he had returned to normal in no time.
"...y-yes..." As Maio confirmed this, my master relentlessly struck.
"...in that case, you are more than capable of making a medicine that prevents memories from sticking, aren't you?"
Even for those foreign to the world of magecraft, the idea of memory loss due to excessive intoxication was a common one. When a person recognizes something, their experience is preserved by moving it from short term memory, an area of memory only concerned with what happened moments before, to mid-term memory, a stage of memory that holds information for anywhere from half a day to a month. However, certain alcohols can serve to inhibit this transfer of information, preventing those events from being recorded in more permanent form. As memory was just as important in magecraft as it was in science, it was something my master - as a lecturer in the Faculty of Modern Magecraft - had spoken on in his courses before.
What he was talking about now was someone artificially recreating that phenomenon through magecraft.
Not just that, but if it was possible to inhibit the transfer of information between short and mid-term memory, it was likely also possible he could create medicine that would serve the same function between mid and long-term memory. Also, within the field of preventing memories from sticking, he could potentially select for certain keywords to be forgotten.
Lifting her head, Touko's expression was curious.
"Hm. Are you saying I took some sort of memory-inhibiting medicine without noticing?"
"No, I can't imagine you being so careless. But if taking that medicine was a condition for a job offered to you, you would still consider taking the request, wouldn't you?"
"I see. That would depend on how interesting the job was, of course," she confirmed.
Depending on how interesting it was.
If it was enough to capture the interest of the Clock Tower's greatest, one who had risen to the rank of Grand.
My master continued.
"Why did they ask for plastic surgery?" He raised one finger. "Why did they need to erase Touko Aozaki's memories of the event?" A second finger.
Pinching those fingers together, he pressed them into his forehead, as if struggling to understand some irrational premise as he continued speaking.
"It's not that complicated an issue. There was no way he could let news of the Princess of Gold's death get out. In that case, I'm sure he'd offer any reward to get her back. Even if that method only produced a fake."
Lord Byron seemed to have given up his protests.
Atram, Mick, and the other accomplished magi were completely absorbed in my master's speech.
In the middle of talking, my master pulled his cigar case from his chest pocket. Taking out and lighting a cigar with a match, he continued.
"I can even take a guess as to what kind of magecraft they used to accomplish the feat."
The cigar held in his mouth burned slowly, giving off a faint purplish smoke. Staring at the burning tip, he muttered.
"It was probably this, wasn't it?"
"Ha!" Suddenly, Touko burst out laughing. As if she just couldn't take it anymore, the woman held her hands to her stomach, laughing uproariously. "Haha, hahaha! Hahahahahaha! Ashes?! A Cinderella spell?! How could it be so simple?!"
My master nodded. "Yes, once you've seen it, it's quite simple."
Of course, I didn't understand at all.
The only thing it brought to mind was the story of Cinderella. Perhaps the Perrault and Basile that my master had been muttering about before were the authors of that fairy tale. Though there were many different versions of the story, the most famous being that published by the Brothers Grimm, the original could be traced back to Charles Perrault, and before him the Italian Basile.
No.
(...ashes?)
Hadn't I heard about them somewhere before?
"Byron Valueleta Iselma, Atram Galiasta," my master turned to the two. Still not understanding the reason for Touko's laughter, they regarded him with puzzled expressions. "I said as much before, but allow me to repeat. Would you mind if I spoke a little more about the Talisman you were arguing over?"
"Do what you like."
"...if you must."
Lord Byron's composed reply was contrasted by Atram's lack of patience.
Having their permission, my master continued.
"The Talisman you were struggling over was the leaf of a Linden tree."
The European Sacred Fig was known as a symbol of holiness, connected to the Holy Virgin Mary and various other saints. It was often planted near churches or court houses that functioned as town centers, and thanks to its medicinal properties, it was also secretly used by magi and alchemists.
"However, this one was connected to a certain Heroic Spirit, through the blood of a dragon that had touched it."
Suddenly, everyone went stiff.
Every one of them knew the legend that that image called to. Even if one wasn't a magus, it was hard to believe there was a person who didn't know of the great Heroic Spirit of Northern Europe. Wielding the legendary sword Balmung, he slew the evil dragon Fafnir, a knight who possessed an immortal body that could be harmed by neither claw nor tooth nor weapon.
Siegfried.
From the enchanting tale of the Nibelungenlied, a hero among heroes. As he bathed in the blood of the dragon, a single linden leaf stuck to his back, the source of the one exception to his immortal body. The Talisman my master spoke of was none other than that leaf.
"...wait." Atram shot to his feet.
There was a faint tremor in his voice. It seemed whatever meaning was hidden in my master's words had finally got through to him.
"What is it? Is speaking of the Talisman off limits after all?"
"No. You mentioned ashes before, didn't you? You don't mean..."
"...right. Even if only once, a leaf drenched in the blood of a dragon would never wither or rot. However, there are magi who could use unconventional means to burn it, making it into a single-use catalyst."
The silence that followed his words felt different from those before.
It was like the silence of hearing someone had wantonly destroyed a precious treasure. Not that they didn't understand the value of the thing they were destroying, but like someone with particular authority in that field had, knowing full well what he was doing, proactively incinerated an object of unspeakable worth to the world.
With an expression like he was choking, Atram turned to Touko.
But not just him.
A sharp sound rang throughout the room. Eyes wide in shock, Lord Byron had let his cane fall to the ground.
"I-impossible...Miss Aozaki...Even if it was you, there's no way..."
If Atram was choking, then Byron looked as if he was begging. For a man who had devoted his entire life to art, seeing that art smashed to pieces before him, perhaps there was no other expression possible.
"Nah, if it was me I would." In contrast, Touko was perfectly composed. "I see. Using a leaf soaked in dragon's blood in a Cinderella spell. It's the perfect affinity, don't you think? The myth of Siegfried is less of a man becoming immortal, and more of him being reborn as an immortal hero. The comparison to Cinderella is even better. Makeup and dressup are definitely their own kinds of magecraft. From there, plastic surgery is just another step along the path. A Linden leaf connected to the rebirth of a person into a hero is a Talisman that's almost too perfect. The fact I don't remember this at all is driving me crazy."
At that, as if suppressing more laughter, she pressed a hand to her mouth as her shoulders began to shake.
The arrayed magi - even Reines and Flat - stared at her in astonishment. Even for him, a magus well outside the realm of normal, Touko's actions seemed unprecedented. Even I, who was a complete outsider to the ways of magi, couldn't avoid the shock of that revelation. Because even I had been born alongisde this box and chained to the past from the beginning. Even I had been taught that blind obedience to the past was a given.
Maybe because I guessed her answer correctly.
Or maybe, there was some other reason.
"W...why..." Lord Byron at last swallowed loudly, turning to Touko. "Why?! Miss Aozaki, that was what you demanded as your payment! Why would you use that yourself to fulfill my request?! That's just going too far...!"
"Oh, is that how it was? Thanks for getting me something so valuable, then." In reply to Lord Byron's wailing, Touko shrugged nonchalantly. "I don't remember it at all, but if the Lord's speculation is correct then I can understand why I did it. I took the job because it sounded interesting. But if the level of materials and funds provided is lacking, that will show clearly in the finished product. So it only makes sense to use my reward to ensure a result that satisfied me. Pretty logical, don't you think?"
"Wha-?! No one asked you to go so far! All we wanted was a way to get through that one night...!"
"Please, let it go. That's just who I am." Touko smiled, an earnest apology from the bottom of her heart.
Aside from the bitter smile on Lord Valueleta's face, the rest of us stood in shock.
As a magus, what she was saying was definitely not wrong.
That will to reach ever deeper into the abyss of magecraft couldn't be denied by any magus. But even if they couldn't deny it, I had to wonder how many could stomach Touko's barbarism. At the very least, for those magi gathered here, each and every one of them was staring at Touko as if she was some sort of incomprehensible monster.
The one magus who wasn't taken in by the shock continued to speak.
"And with this, the stand-in we were talking about earlier has been found," my master said.
Before, he had said that Venus was used as a stand-in for the sun.
But that wasn't just some word game. At the cost of such an important Talisman, a Grand-level magus had performed a Great Ritual that pushed even beyond her own skill, as a stand-in.
"For a spell to make the Princess of Gold more beautiful, the positions of the stars were wrong. But if the purpose of the spell was to turn another woman into the Princess of Gold - if Venus stood in place for the sun, the magecraft would function. The sun and moon in opposition, and Saturn, that governs creation, at the Trine. But, if Venus was standing in for the sun, the story changes. Even if its standing in for the sun, the fact that it's actually a planet doesn't change. In short, you want the moon, Venus, and Saturn to all be on a Trine - each 120 degrees apart."
At a signal from my master, Reines moved a hand, causing the projected image of the stars to shift.
From the horoscope we saw earlier, to a map showing the positions and movements of various stars.
Seeing the new map, a number of magi in the room gasped as the meaning clicked.
A Trine. The moon, Venus, and Saturn all lined up perfectly at 120 degrees from each other.
"This point in time was approximately one month ago. Lining up quite well with the time of the auction that saw Iselma acquiring the Talisman," my master spoke, his voice cold and hard.
It was the other way around though, wasn't it? Because of the positions of the stars, that's why Touko asked for that Linden leaf. That map hovering in between us all was the only proof the other magi needed to support my master's words.
"Wait, wait, was that maid actually the Princess of Gold that we saw...?" Mick groaned, staring at the body of Caleena lying on the floor of the lobby. Then, he lobbed a new question. "Then, why did we see Caleena together with the Princess of Gold at the party? And even when we found the body of the Princess of Gold-"
"At the time of the party, they were only being shown off from the balcony. A homunculus or a puppet would have more than sufficed. Even if magecraft wasn't involved, putting another servant of similar height and build in her clothes would have been sufficient to create the illusion. It would have been too suspicious if there was only one maid at the party, so it only makes sense Lord Byron would have that much covered."
I remembered when Reines and I first arrived at the tower.
Once the carriage had arrived at the tower, the servants leading it had melted like mud. I didn't know whether that was the same as a homunculus, or some other type of magecraft, but something like that could have acted as the maid from a distance without any problems.
"As for when the Princess of Gold's body was found, that's even simpler. Though the spell is effective, it doesn't persist for long. It's called a Cinderella spell, after all."
According to the fairy tale, the spell cast over Cinderella faded after a single night.
At twelve midnight, the magic was gone, and all that remained was a single glass slipper - though the details changed depending on the version of the story you read, they all followed that general theme.
"Regardless of which rendition of the story you read, the result is always the same. The magic cast over the main character vanishes immediately after the party. No doubt, shortly after the true Princess of Gold's body was cut apart and the Mystic Lock was placed over that room, Touko Aozaki's spell also vanished. Whether you want to believe a Grand class magus' ability in plastic surgery is capable of replicating the original Princess' magic wavelength or that the Mystic Lock was retuned to Caleena in the first place, she should have had no problem getting into the room."
"The magic...disappears..."
I remembered a certain fact.
At the party, when the Princess of Gold was being shown, just by looking at her for a mere moment, her beauty was enough that I forgot even to breathe.
However, when she came to speak to us in Reines' room, while her beauty was incredible, we had no issue speaking with her. We had thought it was because we had gotten a little bit used to her, having seen her once before already. But what if that was for an entirely different reason?
What if it was because the spell that transformed Caleena into the Princess of Gold had already started to dissolve?
No, it wasn't just that.
At that time, Caleena was with the Princess of Gold.
If that was the case, then it wasn't Caleena with her, but her twin Rejina-
(...how much?)
How much exactly did we overlook?
Instead of just sitting around waiting for my master to arrive, there should have been something we could do. As if she was thinking the same thing, I saw Reines biting her lip.
"...may I ask something?" Beside Lord Byron furiously shaking his head, Inorai raised her whisky glass. "The purpose of the surgery was to reproduce the Princess of Gold, right? But, my idiot student's procedure resulted in a fake Princess of Gold that was leagues above the real one. Why? Because my idiot student was just that good? Or was it the fault of the Talisman?"
"Certainly, Touko and the Talisman had some influence," my master granted, "but there is another reason as well. As far as magecraft is concerned, beauty has a purpose beyond just aesthetics, as I'm sure you well know. 'Those who see beauty become more beautiful themselves,' or something like that."
I had heard that story from Reines as well.
Art is a kind of sympathetic magecraft, the purification of one's soul and spirit as they appreciate something beautiful is the true nature of beauty. That if there existed something that could be called the ultimate in beauty, witnessing it might draw the observer into a higher level of existence.
"This is one part of what beauty means in magecraft. By presenting the Princesses of Gold and Silver in concert, both of them became even more beautiful. Complementary Beauty, you could call it. But the Princess of Gold could never be allowed to see her own face. The same goes for the Princess of Silver. If their faces were to be even reflected in a mirror, the level of their beauty would decrease."
My master's words filled the lobby along with the smoke from his cigar.
"...that's why, for a spell like this, a third person is necessary."
"Wha-?!" Lord Byron groaned as he stumbled backwards.
Yes, the Princess of Gold had said so.
-But, my father's methods have become inefficient. No, rather the stage at which his methods were efficient has passed.
If that was more than just expediency, but the actual truth, then - Iselma's magecraft held a fatal flaw, and if that flaw led to their stagnation, it was only a matter of course that my master would discover it.
(....after all, that's my master's...)
Seeing through the magecraft of others and guiding it to its proper form was the very skill that made Lord El-Melloi II an unparalleled lecturer of the Clock Tower.
Svin snorted triumphantly, as if taking pride in his teacher.
"Of course, even when it was decided to perform the surgery on Caleena, Lord Byron hadn't even entertained that idea. Flustered at the loss of the Princess of Gold, he just desperately sought to fill that gaping hole."
In contrast to him, my master's expression remained displeased. As if being made to say all of this out loud was painful for him.
"Even so, the third person was acquired, and so the spell was perfected. The one who had spent her life gazing upon the beauty of the Princesses of Gold and Silver - when Caleena was gifted with that same beauty, she was propelled to a beauty of an even higher level."
A trinity - three as one.
In Christianity, it referred to the idea that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all manifestations of a single God, but it was more than just that.
When you are connecting points on a surface, an image begins to take shape starting from three points.
When a symbol has two faces, their opposition creates stability. If it possesses three faces, they each influence the others, and a kind of energy cycles between them.
While the Princesses of Gold and Silver were alone, they stood in a state of stable opposition, equals to each other - but, when a third, who had witnessed those two from the inside was made to wear their beauty, a definitive change was forced upon her.
In a way, the loss of the true Princess of Gold may have also spurred that change on.
The spell that was supposed to be in a state of stability had lost something, and an enormous energy was born from that void. Just like the idea of Potential Energy, once subjected to that slope, it had an effect even on magecraft. A ____ even greater than that possessed by the Princess of Gold was bestowed on Caleena.
Something so powerful, even a Grand like Touko Aozaki could be pressured by it-
"Wait, profesor," Svin raised his hand. He was full of energy, like he was back in the classroom in the Clock Tower. "If what you're saying is right, shouldn't the Princess of Silver have ascended in her own beauty due to witnessing the new Princess of Gold?"
"That's simple," my master moved his gaze. Looking at the Princess of Silver, he continued. "...Miss Estella, you're blind, aren't you?"
"...what, makes you say that?" the Princess replied in a low voice.
"It appears the Princess of Gold was deaf. It's a common pattern in magecraft for one of the five senses to be sealed in order to sharpen one's magecraft. Iselma's own magecraft was built up by engraving that loss into their own genetic code. It was so important that Touko's surgery needed to replicate that effect, robbing Caleena of her tympanic membranes. Come to think of it, the lack of mirrors in the Princess of Gold's room was done to match yours, wasn't it? Your daily lives were matched to the point of sleeping and eating, so it goes without saying that something as impactful on magecraft as the presence or lack of mirrors would also have to match. And if they were going to have to match one way or another, it's a lot easier to have no mirrors in either room than to add them to both."
He removed the cigar from his mouth.
The sound of teeth grinding filled the room. That manner of existence, of a magecraft that had reached the edge of its limits, that had become so stifling, was taken for granted in the world of magi. No matter how hard it was to breathe, there was nowhere for them to escape to, so there was no reason for regret.
Even so, that must have been unbearable for my master.
Even though he was one of the only twelve Lords of the Clock Tower, he had yet to adopt a life like that.
"Of course, there are any number of ways to overcome that obstacle in your daily life. For example, magecraft that emulates the echolocation of bats, among many other possibilities...but, that doesn't change the fact that you can't see. As such, you weren't able to enter the same circulation of beauty that the Princess of Gold inhabited."
Not just being unable to see, the circulation of magecraft itself was unable to reach her.
"Though...considering the one in charge was Miss Aozaki, I can't imagine the possibility of this result was something she just overlooked."
"Hm. I don't remember, but I probably would have figured out as much." Touko narrowed her eyes slightly in response to her name being called. "Oh and by the way, the one who had asked me to eliminate the members of the El-Melloi classroom was Rejina," she said, pointing at the maid.
The maid no longer showed an air of confusion.
Perhaps she had had the time to resolve herself, having spent all that time listening to my master's explanation. She stood with her hands clasped in front of her apron, her gaze unwavering.
"What she offered in exchange was the secret behind the beauty of the Princess of Gold. So it was something like this, was it? I see. I guess you weren't lying, though. You probably could have told me easily. You just never mentioned that it was a beauty that I would never have been able to take for myself. However, if that's how it's going to be, then I have no obligation to keep your identity a secret either, right?"
Suddenly, Touko nodded.
Everyone's gazes were focused on Rejina.
"Then, you-" Reines was the first to speak. "You are the one responsible for blaming the Princess of Gold's murder on me?"
Originally Posted by Deathhappens
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
