The idealized Lyudmila who had never known so many troubles and regrets?
Su Yuzu looked at the Saintess before her, who could barely prop herself up on Su Yuzu's knees by clinging weakly to her shoulders.
The Saintess's expression... was practically luring Su Yuzu to shove the microphone right into her mouth——
As if to say that her former self had known so many troubles and regrets. And that was why she hoped Lyudmila could become the idealized version of herself.
Actually... Su Yuzu could understand it.
It was said that when Saint Michael snapped off her own wings, sacrificed her own Word of Command, and faded away in the Tokyo metropolitan area, she hadn't even come of age yet.
For a girl not yet of age, it was perfectly normal to wear any kind of expression—whether alluring, or innocent, or troubled.
What's more... Su Yuzu recalled Saint Michael's background.
A Saintess of the 「Holy Royal Court」, an ascetic of the Inquisition.
For Saint Michael... her past was perhaps truly full of regret.
But——
Su Yuzu hated that kind of heavy topic.
She looked at the Lyudmila so close before her.
"Lord Michael's idealized Lyudmila..." Su Yuzu's right hand tightened, "is just this—"
"Cute..."
"Easy to bully..."
"A sensitive, cute little girl who's always wearing that look of feigned reluctance—is that it?"
"How lovely."
Out of consideration for the Saintess's dignity, Su Yuzu had even deliberately left out the fact that our cute little Saintess... might actually be a masochist.
After all... what if Lyudmila's masochistic nature actually originated from the very Saintess before her—how awkward would that be.
Su Yuzu watched as an eye-catching blush shot up the Saintess's neck almost in an instant.
Not just her neck—even the girl's earlobes turned a cute crimson.
"Y-you, you, you..."
"What on earth are you babbling about?!!"
The girl's small hands resting on Su Yuzu's shoulders tried to gently push her away.
"Babbling?" Su Yuzu looked at the Saintess before her meaningfully. "But—"
"Student Lyudmila herself... doesn't seem to be denying it at all."
The Saintess, lightly clutching at the sleeve on Su Yuzu's shoulder, looked as though she was about to fall apart entirely.
She wanted to argue back.
But... before the overflowing Holy Light and the ironclad facts, she seemed to have neither the strength nor the possibility to refute it.
Even though the one who had now taken over everything had become Saint Michael, still... what good would that do.
Lyudmila had long since, amid her wavering faith, bowed her head to the girl before her.
The Saintess looked at the girl before her.
Her shoulders trembling... both of them sank into an almost eerie silence.
After a long silence, Saint Michael finally lowered her head and yielded to Su Yuzu, almost as if begging for mercy, "Could you... let... let go of me..."
Even Saint Michael had never encountered a situation like this—someone this... fond of bullying others, this fond of seizing people by their vulnerabilities, such a wicked creature.
Su Yuzu looked at the Saint Michael before her.
The way the holy, pure girl struggled to convince herself to beg for mercy was really quite amusing.
"Of course..." she said—and yet Su Yuzu gripped the Saintess a little tighter.
As if~
Saint Michael was, after all, a Saintess of the Fifth Sequence.
Even just the radiance she had left behind had held back, for seventeen years, all the Aberrants outside the Tokyo metropolitan area—including Kujou Iruka.
Had Su Yuzu not been continually developing Lyudmila, the radiant power Saint Michael left behind could probably have lasted even longer.
Even in the current situation, the moment she let go of the girl's 'weak spot,' the relationship between the two of them might well flip in an instant.
But——
Then again, not necessarily.
Su Yuzu still held in her hand a trump card capable of turning everything around under any 'disadvantage.'
"Th-then... then..."
"Could you..."
The Saintess's hand, clinging to Su Yuzu's shoulder, tightened bit by bit.
Her gaze drifted downward, as if pleading.
Su Yuzu took in the sight of Saint Michael, then slowly let go.
Then, immediately, she instead wrapped her arms around the Saintess's shoulders, stopping the girl from sliding off her knees.
Saint Michael's shoulders flinched.
Still... being held by the shoulders was better than... better than before.
In this very posture, the distance between the two of them seemed to have grown even closer.
By such contrast, even Saint Michael could feel her body temperature gradually climbing from that ever-so-slight—well, a hundred-million-fold—bit of Shame.
After a long silence, Saint Michael simply gave herself up to resignation... and let Su Yuzu maintain this posture that was, for her, so delicate.
She changed the subject, brushing aside that plainly visible awkwardness.
"Miss Yuzu..."
"How did you become so certain—"
"that I was right here, within Lyudmila?"
Su Yuzu had been too decisive.
So decisive that even Saint Michael had had no choice but to step forward.
Otherwise... Lyudmila would likely have been bullied by the girl to the point of breaking down in floods of tears and being left traumatized.
"I had clearly already Erased the existence of Saint Michael."
"This world should already have forgotten me, leaving only Lyudmila."
Erase... her existence?
Su Yuzu looked at the Saintess before her with some astonishment.
She could roughly understand now why, among everyone she had asked and all the records she had looked up, every account of Saint Michael contained only the information that Saint Michael had snapped off her wings, sacrificed her Word of Command, and successfully intercepted Kujou Iruka.
Beyond that—not to mention any of Saint Michael's other deeds—there wasn't even a single portrait or photograph of Saint Michael, and now she understood why.
Just as the mission had described.
Though the world remembered her achievements, it was as if the world had forgotten her entirely.
"Actually..."
"It's very simple."
Su Yuzu held Lyudmila Michael's shoulders.
"I asked Tennoji-senpai to investigate... the records of every member of the clergy the 「Holy Royal Court」 has dispatched to Japan for exchange and study, from eighteen years ago until now."
"What?!" The Saintess froze.
"Crossing the ocean is quite difficult, you know~ Every single exchange dispatch is, in fact, recorded."
"But... there's nothing———" Su Yuzu smiled.
"Among the exchange students the 「Holy Royal Court」 sent to Japan, sent to the Tokyo metropolitan area, not a single child was named Lyudmila."
"And what's more..."
"Even the 「Holy Royal Court」's Inquisition..."
"after you chose to sacrifice yourself, never cultivated a second Saintess again."
"Student Lyudmila~"
"It's as if you were someone who simply appeared in this world... someone who clearly exists, yet has no past."
"The complete opposite of you."
"Is... that so?"
Saint Michael looked at Su Yuzu, suddenly falling silent.
She had clearly erased every last tell of her own—only to end up exposed by the fact that Lyudmila's past was too clean.
____
________________________________________
🌸 Help Love Bloom!
Our girls need a little push... and you can help!
💖 Gift for Everyone: Once we hit 50 Powerstones, I'll release +1 bonus chapter to warm your hearts.
🚀 Community Reward: If we reach 20 supporting members, we'll have a +5 chapter marathon across all stories! The romance won't stop.
👻 Come to our secret corner: Search for GirlsLove on (P). You know that's where the magic happens... 😉