Maydare Volume 2 Chapter 9 - The Blue Truth (Part 2)

 Some bombs are dropped in this chapter

---

Previous | TOC | Next

Eyes the color of the bottom of the ocean, as if I couldn’t ever return once I got swallowed into them.

Professor Batiste’s green eyes...were already gone.

“I have a favor to ask of you, Makia O’Drielle.”

The blue clown took off his right glove, took my chin with his large, skinny and dry hand, and whispered,

“It would still be a shame to kill you. By all means, I would like to have you come to our Heavenly Empire.”

“...Are you saying that you want me to turn to the side of the Heavenly Empire, the enemy?”

“Isn’t that good? The Savior, Airi, doesn’t trust you either. She thinks you are an enemy, an evil witch who plotted everything. This one was the Savior’s personal teacher, so I know that well?”

“What…”

What does that mean?

Airi thought of me as an enemy? An evil witch?

“It’s the same for the other Guardians. You saw it earlier, didn’t you? Even Thor Bigreitz protected the Savior first. He might as well have left you to die, in order to protect the Savior.”

“...”

The blue clown whispers tempted me sweetly.

He found a crack in my mind and twisted his fingers into it to seek out my anxieties. 

I was sure this was how he got into Professor Batiste’s mind.

“That is what it means to be a Guardian chosen by the stars. Your body is made to work that way. Sooner or later, he will become a prisoner of the Savior down to his heart, and he will love that girl down to the marrow of her bones. The moment he abandons you is inevitable…”

I think someone said something like that to me before.

Guardians were existences who unconditionally protected the Savior.

That was already a definite thing with the engraved crest.

“Oh, are you crying? What a poor, pitiful witch. Let us take back what was taken from us, shall we? As far as this one knows, that is the〈Scarlet Witch’s〉’s strong point…?”

“...I suppose.”

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I believed Thor was taken away from me.

Feelings of jealousy and the sadness of one-sided love reared their heads at a chance moment. I was well aware of that.

“But you’re an idiot.”

I muttered.

“It’s not that I wanted to be protected by Thor. And Thor didn’t abandon me.”

The moment I was sucked into the light of the transference magic, I did indeed see Thor embracing Airi.

But at the same time, I saw a look that was like despair on his face.

I thought I swore. That I would never let him look like that.

That was why, I…

“Look now. I’m going to beat you into a pulp!”

I lifted my head and glared at the blue clown in front of me.

At the same time, the strong emotions that lay dormant within me welled up and overflowed from my eyes along with magic power. I didn’t know if that was anger or sadness, but they were hot tears tinged with magic.

Snow…

On the other side of my tear-filled eyes, I saw a witch in a red dress, standing still on a snowy mountain.

With tears flowing from her eyes as well, she taught me how to use the incantation.

Like whispering. Like reading a poem.

Yes. This was a very quiet and cruel spell——

“Maki rie luci ah——Crown of salt, crushing night. None shall see my tears.”

None shall see my tears. Even so, my gaze and the Jester’s crossed.

The eyes that lurked behind the mask were trapped by me, who had a single tear running down my face, and they couldn’t turn away.

Yes. Until my hot tear gently fell onto the clown’s hand.

“What…”

With a cracking sound, the parts my tears fell on slowly began to petrify, like crystal flowers blooming.

Pure white and glittering. The magic encroached on his body along with silence.

“This is one of the 〈Scarlet Witch’s〉command magics. An ancient alchemical technique that uses part of the flesh as an intermediary…”

The clown’s voice shook as he gazed, enraptured, at his hands, where stone flowers were blooming.

To be honest, I was expecting a flashy spell like the one used at the ball, but this was a beautiful and cruel spell, and even the quietly echoing sound was mysterious.

Could this stone be the same as the stones from the Salt Forest?

No, anything was fine now. I had to get out of here while I still have the chance!

While the clown was mesmerized by his own petrifying arms, I forced my weak body up and frantically ran down the central aisle of the cathedral.

Quickly. I had to quickly tell the palace about this…

“!?”

However, the doors of the cathedral were tightly closed. There was a barrier around the cathedral.

“This one would expect nothing less, Makia O’Drielle. The〈Scarlet Witch’s〉magic truly is even more of a threat to the Heavenly Empire than the Savior…”

He pulled my hair from behind, causing my face to contort in pain.

Ultramarine vines, like long, thin, and twisted arms, seized my hair. My legs, arms, and torso were all entangled in the blue-black vines and lifted into the air.

When I managed to look down, I saw that the blue clown was not even trying to stop his own petrification, but was happily manipulating the group of blue vines. The vines were growing out of a distorted pool of magic power at his feet.

What was that…

“Now, come here, Scarlet Witch. Your blood, tears, bones, flesh, and hair will all be used well by this one.”

“No...let go, let go of me!”

I felt afraid, like if I were to be pulled into that distortion, I would never be myself again, and I would never be able to come back here.

However, my magic power was already spent. The power of my【Fire】blessing was also nullified and couldn’t be used.

I didn’t know if I was going to get dragged in first, or if the clown would be completely petrified first…

“!?”

At that moment, there was a high-pitched sound of a stained glass window bursting open and breaking from the outside.

The sound of breaking glass had the effect of breaking the barrier. Through the impact and the colorful shards of glass flying around, I saw a knight in black.

The knight slid his sword into the blue vines that captured me and severed them in an instant. 

“Milady!”

Then, as I fell from a high place, he threw away his sword and caught me in his arms.

“Thor...you came.”

“Of course. I told you, didn’t I? Your magic power is easy to know. If you cast a spell, I would come running.”

Just as he said before, Thor sensed the〈Scarlet Witch’s〉magic that I unleashed, located it, and rushed to me.

My magic power that only Thor could trace. If I were to compare it to a color, it would be a bright red…

“Well, well. If it isn’t Thor Bigreitz? This one thought you didn’t want Miss Makia anymore?”

Thor, who was always so calm and unruffled, was burning with quiet anger, and he lowered me on the floor and picked up his sword. When he looked up, he had the darkest, coldest eyes I had ever seen from him.

“Back there...when Lord Batiste purposely threw Lady Airi at me...to block my movements. It was so that I couldn’t go protect milady…”

Thor recognized the clown as an enemy and slowly moved towards him.

The air was frozen. I could feel the tremor of Thor’s magic power, and I got goosebumps.

The blue clown, too, was becoming completely petrified, and as he made cracks in his body,

“Well, it’s just as well. It seems that this body will be turned to stone by the witch’s curse? And it seems that there are other troublesome things coming? Ladies and gentlemen, that’s all for today…”

With those final words, he wrapped himself in those blue vines.

By the time Thor threw his sword at him, he was completely out of sight.

The vines quickly decayed, and all that emerged from the dead growth was the completely petrified body of Eugene Batiste, pierced through the abdomen by Thor’s sword, and the white-painted mask of a clown.

The clown who had been speaking to me creepily earlier was no longer there.

The cathedral fell silent. Thor pulled out the sword that had been stuck in Professor Batiste’s body and looked down at it for a moment.

I also hurried over to Thor’s side to check on the deceased Professor Batiste.

“Professor Batiste was the original fourth Guardian. But he hid that for a long time. He was taken advantage of and his body was taken over by that blue clown. By the time the Guardian crest was transferred to me, he was already dead. So…”

“Then, he’s finally free.”

Thor, understanding the situation, matter-of-factly answered. As he sheathed his sword, he turned towards me.

“Forgive me, milady. I made you feel afraid again.”

Then he got down on one knee in front of me, bowed his head, and didn’t attempt to raise it.

Blood seeped from his feet on the shattered pieces of stained glass.

He was being tormented by a terrible sense of regret. He couldn’t hide his disappointment in himself.

“Stand, Thor. ...Please stand up.”

Thor obediently obeyed my command and stood up.

I put my hand on his cheek. I healed him before, but he got all cut up again, probably because he broke through the stained glass…

“You found me again. Following that thin, thin thread of magic.”

“...No. It was rather thick and easy to see, like a magic rope.”

“Thor, it’s important to read the room. Do you understand?”

He was the same as ever, but thanks to him, the deceptive words the blue clown whispered to me disappeared somewhere.

”Thank you, Thor. I can’t tell you how relieved I am that you found me...but, I’m sorry. I made you get hurt again.”

One of the large tears that had been pooling around my eyes rolled down my cheek. Thor took off his gloves and tried to wipe the tear away, but I hurriedly shook my face and didn’t let him touch it.

“No, Thor! These tears are dangerous. They petrified Lord Batiste. I’ve learned another cruel spell.”

“...Milady.”

Thor stopped wiping my tears.

However, without hesitation, he gently kissed my wet eyes.

The lips that touched me were cold and trembling, and I could clearly feel the fear Thor felt before he found me. As well as something like a helpless frustration.

“Thor…?”

“Milady. I don’t care about my injuries. But, I’m terribly scared.”

Then, Thor buried his face in my shoulder, putting his forehead to it.

“I wanted to save you first at that time. But my body couldn’t move, like it was bound in chains. It had nothing to do with my will. The engraved seal on my chest...was binding me. It’s like I’m a beast being kept alive just to protect the Savior.”

The words resonated painfully in my heart.

Thor slowly pulled away from me and stared at his trembling hands. He wasn’t even blinking.

“What if I can’t protect you in the future? What if I abandon you at a critical moment? I don’t want to do that, I don’t want to make that choice. Even if I have to tear off these chains, I will…” 

”Thor!”

I wrapped my arms around Thor’s neck and hugged him tightly.

How did we end up in such a distorted relationship?

We used to be a very straightforward lady and knight, who only needed to care for each other.

I want to be stronger. I want to be someone who wouldn’t let Thor feel this way.

But please, just for now, let us go back to being the knight and lady we were before, when we were thinking only of each other.

I’m begging of this of the someone who carved these marks on us——

“Eugene!”

It was Airi’s voice. I hurriedly pulled away from Thor.

Not only Airi, it was also the other Guardians who came here belatedly.

The petrified and shattered husk of Eugene Batiste was lying before the cathedral. Finding him completely transformed, Airi was speechless for a while.

“Eugene turned to stone…? This is Eugene, right? How?”

“I...I used a petrification spell.”

“Makia did? Huh? Is he...dead?”

Before I could give a detailed explanation, Airi glared at me with tears in her eyes. 

“So basically, it was Makia who killed Eugene?”

Thor was about to say something, but I stopped him and calmly replied.

“Airi. Professor Batiste was the original fourth Guardian. He had been hiding it from you all this time.”

“...What? The fourth Guardian? He was hiding it?”

“Yes. During that time, his body was taken over by a magician from the Heavenly Empire. So then the crest was transferred to me. It seems that Professor Batiste has been dead for a long time.”

Sir Lionel and Prince Gilbert reacted, perhaps because I said the words “Heavenly Empire.”

It was an existence that would, without a doubt, turn against us sooner or later.

However, the enemy had been on the move for quite some time, even finding the fourth Guardian before we did and manipulating him from behind the scenes. It was very, very, astonishing.

“That can’t be true. That’s crazy. If that was the case, why was Eugene hiding his Guardianship from me? Impossible, that’s impossible...being a Guardian is the highest honor.”

Airi folded at her knees, and she slumped to the ground. And then, she touched Professor Batiste’s hand, which had turned to stone, and watching without blinking as it shattered into tiny pieces.

“No, Airi. Professor Batiste had a fiancee who was very ill, and he didn’t want to leave her side. That was why he hid the fact that he was a Guardian for so long.”

“You’re lying! Eugene said I was the most important person to him!” 

“...Airi. Listen to me.”

“It’s all Makia’s doing, isn’t it!? You’re finally showing your true colors, I know it! You got your minion Beatrice to cause a scene and set Eugene up!”

Airi seemed to be confused, saying things that didn’t make sense and not listening to me at all.

But just as the clown said, she thought I was the mastermind behind everything. I knew that much very well, and I was more shocked than I expected to be.

Thor finally appealed to her in a strong tone, as though he couldn’t take it anymore.

“Lady Airi, you need to look at the reality of the situation! Miss Makia has uncovered the truth behind the series of events and saved you and the Kingdom of Ruschia from danger!”

Airi’s shoulders jerked up, and she looked up at Thor strangely.

“Thor, how dare you speak to Airi…”

“I’m sure you must understand, Your Highness. You must understand what it means that Lord Batiste’s body was taken over by a forbidden magic.”

Unusually for Prince Gilbert, he swallowed his words back.

Yes. He should understand it once he imagined it. How serious this matter was.

“We should return to the palace for now and investigate the area around Lord Batiste. If the Heavenly Empire is making moves against the Kingdom of Ruschia, we can’t afford to dally.”

Sir Lionel’s face was grim as he made that decision calmly. 

He had helped us in many ways with this incident. It was Sir Lionel who listened to Beatrice and me and brought Airi to Professor Batiste’s room.

“What are you all talking about? You’re believing her story, and not me?”

However, Airi was the only one who still hadn’t fully accepted the reality.

Even though everyone knew that this wasn’t the time to talk about such things, but Airi was still fixated on me. On me…

“A magician who killed Eugene and took over his body? That’s exactly what Makia did. She was the one who killed Eugene in the first place and stole his crest. That was how she was able to control his body until now. See, it all fits together, right? The wicked witch in my story had that kind of power…”

“...Airi.”

Her argument was already unreasonable.

Unable to face reality, she was forcibly finding excuses and trying to make me the villain.

Even the Guardians were stunned.

However, Airi, oblivious to the atmosphere around her, glared at me and said it straight out.

“I wasn’t tricked. You’re the enemy! She’s no friend or Guardian!”

“...” 

I was about to say something, but I held my tongue.

She really was a hopeless girl.

No matter what she was told, no matter what happened, Airi only saw a story that unfolded the way she imagined it, and characters that were how she wanted them to be. As long as she believed that this world was in the story she had written.

“You’ve always hated witches, huh, Airi. ...No, Tanaka-san.”

“...Huh?”

At first, Airi stared at me in puzzlement when I called her by that name.

“You think I’m an evil witch. Because you need an evil witch in your ideal story.”

I finally understood. That was why you were so angry at me back then.

The role you wanted me to play was a wicked witch who did evil. You weren’t worried about me because you thought of me as a friend…

“That is destiny, that is what’s right! I know it. Because this world is my——”

“Please stop talking!”

I also raised my voice and silenced Airi.

“What do you say you know? This isn’t the world of ‘The Story Where I Will be Happy’ that you wrote. We aren’t ‘characters’ who move in ways that are convenient for you!” 

Airi’s eyes widened at the mention of that “title” from my mouth.

There was only one other person who knew the story of the novel she had been writing.

“This world is ‘Maydare.’ Each and every one of the people living here are struggling to live, have their own pasts, and have feelings you don’t know about. Eugene Batiste, who died after his body was taken over. What exactly do you know about him…!”

How much of this world did you say you know about?

There was certainly a reason why Professor Batiste hadn’t come forward about being a Guardian. There was a woman he wanted to protect at any cost. You didn’t even know about that. You didn’t want to believe it.

Not everyone took pride in their role as Guardian and blindly loved the Savior.

There was no doubt that Airi was a precious and exalted being, but she must know that each one of us had our own non-negotiable circumstances and important people.

Ah, for some reason, I felt like crying again.

Because Airi, Tanaka-san, was still oblivious.

Even if I stared at her and pleaded with her, my words didn’t reach her, and she didn’t try to see who I really was.

You didn’t know anything, not a single thing, about me.

“Tanaka-san. You still don’t know who I am?”

“W-Who are…”

“I am——”

That day, on the school roof in that other world.

A pathetic and dull girl who had lost the childhood friend she loved and her best friend at the same time.

“I am the reincarnation of ‘Oda Kazuha,’ Tanaka-san.”

I put my hand on my chest and declared.

You couldn’t perceive it just by looking at the surface. The name of the other me, the one in the back of me.

That is what I’m going to share with you, my best friend and love rival from my previous life.

“Huh...Oda...san?”

Her large eyes lit up with a deeper color of surprise than ever before, and unable to even blink, Airi froze in place.

Thor’s face also stiffened next to me.

The other Guardians probably couldn’t understand what I said either. But I had already reached my limit. 

More than being convinced that I was an evil witch, I couldn’t stand the way she interpreted the people living in this world to suit her own convenience.

I had to tell you the truth, even if it meant shocking you.

For Professor Batiste, for Thor and the other Guardians, and for Airi...for your own sake.

Even if you don’t consider me a friend, even if you consider me as your enemy, this is something that only I, your former best friend, can tell you.

“...ah.”

I was starting to feel a little lightheaded. I felt dizzy, and my body felt hot.

Maybe it was because it was the first time I let out something like a secret I had been hiding for a long time.

Wanting to cool my head a bit, I turned my back to Airi, pushed open the heavy doors myself, and staggered out of the cathedral.

“Milady!”

Thor ran after me.

“It’s fine, Thor. You don’t have to follow me. You should stay with Ai…”

Thor pulled my shoulder hard and looked at me. He seemed to be panicking heavily.

“Milady, are you alright? You’re crying tears of blood!”

“What?”

Thor’s words were unexpected.

I tilted my head to the side in confusion, and while not knowing what was going on, I rushed to the fountain in the central square to look into the water.

“U-uwah, what is this…”

I looked terrifying. My eyes were bright red, and I was crying tears of blood.

Was this a side effect of the〈Scarlet Witch’s〉magic?

Everyone was probably speechless, and my head was probably spinning. I mean, this was something out of a horror movie.

“Milady, we have to do something immediately! It’ll be terrible if you lose your sight!”

Without letting me respond, the overprotective Thor carried me and hurried to the palace infirmary.

As I was being held by him, I wiped the tears of blood from my eyes and looked at the cathedral again.

On the other side of the open door, I saw the Savior Airi sitting down on the floor in a daze.

Hey, Tanaka-san.

It’s as though we’re continuing the fight we couldn’t have back then.

---

Previous | TOC | Next