"Miss Yuzu..."
"What do you suppose is the manner in which Lyudmila truly exists?"
Clinging to the girl's shoulders, lowering her brows and eyes, Saint Michael questioned the girl before her.
Her gradually weakening body had long since pressed its weight down upon the girl's knees.
But... the more it was so, the more her body seemed to lose all strength.
It already had nothing to do with Saint Michael's will.
Rather, it was this body—this body that already belonged to Lyudmila.
It had long since melted in the voice of the girl before her, in the breath of the girl before her, in the body warmth of the girl before her, in the... malice of the girl before her.
Even though, for Saint Michael, this so-called 'giving up' should have been an entry that could never possibly appear.
Even when facing one so powerful... so powerful as to make her feel despair, like Kujou Iruka, never once had the thought of giving up risen in Saint Michael's heart.
But... before Su Yuzu, she had already, unconsciously, given up resisting, given up struggling.
She could only cling to Su Yuzu's shoulders, tilting her head, as though to hide away the shame within her heart.
"I don't know——" Su Yuzu answered very frankly.
She did not know what exactly Saint Michael had done after intercepting Kujou Iruka.
But...
"I only know one thing."
Su Yuzu gathered Saint Michael's shoulders into her embrace. "She is already Lyudmila."
The Saintess's expression suddenly turned somewhat dazed. "That's right..."
"She is already Lyudmila."
A deep breath——
The Saintess looked at Su Yuzu and resolved to lay everything bare before the girl.
"Seventeen... no——"
"Eighteen years ago."
"I was invited to the Tokyo metropolitan area to take part in an exchange, and as it turned out, I unexpectedly ran into that Abyss of Eternal Smiles..."
"I couldn't bear to watch a city fall... several million people driven from their homes, their very survival hanging by a thread, so I chose to give battle."
「Invited...?」
「Unexpectedly!?」 Su Yuzu, who had been dug into so many pits by the 「Eye of Insight」 and 「Epiphany Manufacture」, always felt that she had caught a whiff of conspiracy.
Still, she did not choose to interrupt Saint Michael, but rather continued to listen quietly.
"I am a Sun Esper of the Fifth Sequence."
"And that Abyss of Eternal Smiles, at that time, was already infinitely close to the Seventh Sequence."
"She is the very incarnation of the Abyss Will."
"But... by borrowing the power of the 「Word of Command」, merely holding her off did not seem to be any difficult task."
"Bor... rowing?" Su Yuzu looked at the Saint Michael before her.
Saint Michael hesitated for a moment, then went on, "In the end——"
"I never imagined that the Abyss of Eternal Smiles... was nowhere near as simple as an ordinary Aberrant."
"That bunch from the Investigation Bureau... they actually concealed such crucial information!!!" To this very day, when bringing up the matter of Kujou Iruka, Saint Michael still seemed somewhat resentful.
She could accept sacrificing herself for the sake of a city.
But... she could not accept that, at the very moment she had already steeled herself to be sacrificed for that city, there were still people digging pits behind her back, stabbing her in the back.
"She was a rule-type ability user from the era before the last." Su Yuzu said on Saint Michael's behalf.
"She was... the 「Throne」 of prophecy."
"No——" Saint Michael's expression suddenly turned very strange. "She was a rule-type ability user from the last era."
"——I am not."
"The power of the 「Word of Command」 does not belong to me."
"Rather, it comes from the inheritance of the Fourteenth-Generation Saintess."
"That is also... the reason I said 'borrowing.'" She looked at Su Yuzu. The girl's expression was very calm, and she did not look the least bit surprised.
This left the Saintess, who had been thwarted at every turn in her clashes with Su Yuzu, feeling a little unwilling to concede in her heart. "Yuzu..."
"Not surprised?"
"Very surprised." Su Yuzu's answer was, after all, beyond Saint Michael's expectations. "When I first noticed this problem, I had already been surprised."
"In less than three years after Kujou Iruka plunged into the Abyss..."
"You appeared."
"For two rule-type ability users to appear at once in a single era—this anomaly... was also what prompted me to want to investigate your past, and then——"
"To notice the anomaly upon Student Lyudmila."
"So there was that factor as well." Saint Michael smiled bitterly. "In any case..."
"The strength of that Abyss of Eternal Smiles far exceeded my expectations."
"The power of the 「Word of Command」 needs Light to sustain it."
"In the end... I had no choice but to sacrifice everything of mine to create the conditions to intercept her."
She stroked the earring on her ear.
Su Yuzu remembered the name of that Holy Relic—「Sanctuary of the Sacrificed」.
"This Holy Relic is the Holy Relic left behind after I, as 「Saint Michael」, died."
"Died..." Su Yuzu looked at the girl before her and suddenly felt a wave of heaviness.
"Besides the effect of breaking one attack once a day." Saint Michael explained to Su Yuzu.
"It also has a one-time... chance to let the sacrificed start everything over again."
"But... the interesting thing is——"
"The Holy Relic that appeared because of my death actually saved the me who should originally have died."
"And then..."
"Lyudmila was born... is that it?" Su Yuzu looked at the Saint Michael before her.
"Yes... and no." Saint Michael did not deny it.
"To be honest——"
"Saint Michael is not as glamorous as those people make her out to be."
"Sometimes, I too would like to be just like an ordinary girl... to go and buy a serving of strawberry cream crepes..." She suddenly raised her head and looked toward Su Yuzu.
Only then did Su Yuzu realize once again.
The Saintess before her had, in fact, all along been gazing at her through Lyudmila's eyes.
"Sometimes, I too would like to taste... a little ordinary love."
"But it cannot be——"
"As the me who is Saint Michael, I cannot do it."
"I hold hope for everything in the world, but for myself alone... I cannot see the light of any future."
"So, when I had the chance to start over, I chose to let go."
"I also thought of letting Lyudmila have a normal childhood."
"I wanted her, as she grew up, to be like an ordinary girl—far from the 「Holy Royal Court」, far from so-called deities, far from... me."
"But I'm very sorry..."
"I never knew how an ordinary girl ought to grow up."
"I could only clumsily... fashion for her what I was able to fashion... the 「Holy Royal Court」, the Inquisition... She grew up upon this land, yet her heart was something imported."
"When she prayed that she might become a Saintess of the Inquisition... my heart softened."
"I watched, with my own eyes, as I became the deity in her heart."
"Watched as she became another Lyudmila."
Su Yuzu held Saint Michael tightly.
"There's nothing wrong with this, either~"
"A Lyudmila like this... is very lovable."
In Su Yuzu's embrace, Saint Michael lifted her head wistfully, gazing at the girl before her.
The girl's words, to her ears, seemed to carry two layers of meaning.
Saint Michael could not even tell whether the Lyudmila on the girl's lips was that faith-shaking Saintess, or... herself.
Or perhaps both.
"You really are a sin-laden creature."
____
________________________________________
🌸 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... 😉