Melodious hymns echoed through the sacred cathedral. Before Alexia stood her older sister, dressed in a pure white wedding gown and holding a silver sword, while beside her stood Cid in a groom's suit, watching Alexia with anticipation in his eyes. Despite the sweltering heat, Alexia felt cold all over and instinctively pulled the replica Shadow Black Robe tighter around herself.
Everything was silent. Belated regret surged endlessly within her. Feeling the chill radiating from the red haired woman's blade, Alexia felt as though the entire world were spinning around her.
No. I still have a chance!
She forced her unsteady legs to remain firm, clenched her teeth, and raised her sword to confront the red haired woman.
"This is our final battle, Shadow!"
The completely unfamiliar red haired woman shouted something Alexia could not understand and charged at her. Alexia instinctively struck back.
Their blades crossed. For some reason, the swordsmanship of this unfamiliar red haired lunatic seemed considerably weaker than usual. Even with Alexia's current skill, she could steadily suppress her.
If the battle continued this way, victory should come easily.
Yes. I'll use this sword to cut off the head of this strange red haired lunatic.
The moment that thought flashed through her mind, her blade accelerated. The red haired woman, already unable to match her, was immediately driven into a hopeless position.
"Shadow, after I die, please release Alexia. That child will never become your enemy. She will become the queen of this country. Let the hatred between us end with my death. Alexia and Cid are both innocent."
Perhaps she had already accepted her fate. The red haired lunatic gave a helpless smile, barely parried several more attacks, and made one final plea to Shadow. Then, with her stance riddled with openings, she resolutely unleashed her last strike.
The attack was aimed directly at a vital point, but it left far too many openings. Even with her hand inexplicably trembling, Alexia could still kill the red haired woman before the blow landed.
So that was what she should do.
The longsword should have traced a beautiful arc through the air, but instead moved slowly and unsteadily until it stopped just before the red haired beauty's neck.
As the price for stopping her attack, Iris's sword pierced Alexia's heart.
...
"Waaah!!!"
Alexia awoke with a scream and shot upright on the large bed. Her pounding heartbeat was so loud that she could hear it clearly through her own flesh, and her thin clothing was soaked with cold sweat.
"Onee-sama married Pochi, Pochi was someone I captured myself, and then Onee-sama killed me at their wedding. Why would I have a dream like that?!"
Clutching her violently pounding heart, Alexia recalled the incomprehensible dream that had tormented her twice since returning home the previous night and instinctively questioned herself.
"...This is all Pochi's fault!"
After considering her experiences for a moment, Alexia reached a conclusion.
Everything was Cid's fault.
"This was only a dream. It must be a scheme by the Cult of Diablos and that evil silver haired Elf, who secretly attacked me because they dislike me and wanted to disturb my state of mind. Dreams are the opposite of reality. I, Alexia, could never become a loser like Natsume!"
Alexia rambled to distract herself and reinforce her resolve. Yet as she remembered entering Cid's cabin the previous night to search for terrorists, seeing figurines and lewd pictures of her sister, then witnessing how familiar and close her sister and friend had acted at lunch, her confidence weakened with every word.
Yes. I'll use this sword to cut off the head of this strange red haired lunatic.
As Alexia recalled all the humiliations she had suffered along the way, her unfocused gaze unconsciously drifted toward her sword. For some reason, the thought that had only briefly appeared in the dream before being discarded now surfaced within her mind again.
"Alexia, stop sulking. We've arrived, so it's time to disembark. Don't forget that our kingdom is responsible for maintaining order and security aboard the Mitsugoshi Company's ships. We cannot be the ones to break the rules."
"!!!"
Just as Alexia's darker impulses were beginning to take hold, someone suddenly knocked on the door. Iris's voice came from outside, snapping Alexia back to her senses when her hand was already only a few centimeters from her sword.
What am I thinking? That's my older sister!
Horror appeared on Alexia's face. She looked at the sword within reach, then toward the door as Iris continued urging her to come out.
After hesitating, Alexia took the sword and fastened it around her waist before walking over and opening the door.
Iris was still in the middle of knocking when the door opened and Alexia stepped out. Delight appeared on her face, and she released a breath of relief.
"Thank goodness, Alexia. You finally came out. You locked yourself inside your room after lunch and refused to come out. I was starting to worry that something had happened to you."
Seeing the relieved smile her sister showed upon finding her safe, Alexia felt ashamed as she recalled her earlier thoughts.
All this had happened because of some inexplicable dream and a figurine belonging to Pochi.
What did that figurine look like again?
Never mind. She had not examined it closely at the time. Whatever the case, it had definitely resembled her sister.
It was only a figurine of Onee-sama, yet Alexia had nearly pushed away the sister with whom she had only recently repaired her relationship.
Could she still call herself a sister after that?
She would warn Pochi again later and force him to abandon his delusions. Then she would pretend that nothing from last night or today's lunch had ever happened.
Walking beside Iris, Alexia made her decision and began considering how to phrase her friendly warning. As her thoughts turned, she noticed Cid waiting to disembark with a cup of milk tea in his hand.
"Onee-sama, please wait here for a moment. I still have something to say to Cid."
"Huh? Well... hurry back. We still need to meet Father for the family banquet."
Iris was briefly surprised but did not think much of it, assuming Alexia merely wanted to speak with her friend. She simply urged her to return quickly.
"Mm."
With her sister's permission, Alexia nodded and strode toward Cid, only to pause when she reached him.
"Hey, Pochi. What are you looking at?"
Two black figures in black slime suits had leaped from the cruise ship's deck and were walking away in full view of the crowd.
"The scenery."
Cid immediately withdrew his gaze from Millia and the other figure, whose face he could not see, then answered Alexia as she leaned closer and searched in the direction he had been looking.
"Really? I don't believe you."
Alexia leaned forward and searched the area. Her gaze passed directly over the two black figures who were still strolling away at a leisurely pace.
In the crowded harbor, two people wearing black bodysuits in the summer heat stood out like sore thumbs. Under normal circumstances, Alexia should have spotted the two Shadow Garden members with ease.
"Fine. There really isn't anything there."
After finding nothing, Alexia withdrew her gaze and admitted that she had been overly sensitive.
Her Pochi had probably fallen into another bout of madness and started staring into the distance with that creepy expression.
"Mm."
Cid shrugged and raised his milk tea for another sip. He was not surprised by Alexia's response. After all, she did not possess his senses.
From Cid's perspective, the presence of the two figures was as faint as dust floating through the air. Their surroundings also treated their existence as completely ordinary, which meant no one could notice them regardless of what they did.
Cid had only detected them because they passed directly in front of him. His realm constantly covered his entire body, so a speck of dust moving along such an abnormal path naturally drew his attention.
There was nothing more complicated to it.
Come to think of it... I only mentioned something like this casually in a story when I was a child. Eta actually managed to create it. Terrifying. I hope Gamma and the others can keep Eta under control.
Cid glanced one last time at the slightly ridiculous Stone Hats on the two black figures' heads and involuntarily swallowed.
In theory, even Transcenders would fail to notice someone using those items unless the wearer approached them directly and mocked them to their face.
Yet two ordinary Mitsugoshi members each had one.
Their wealth was truly terrifying.
Come to think of it, Gamma and the others are already that rich. Should I ask them for royalties? Everything else is debatable, but I genuinely developed the black slime battle suit by myself.
Cid's thoughts wandered before returning to their original track.
He already seemed to possess enough money to live comfortably for the rest of his life, but he would not object to earning even more.
"So, Alexia, what do you want this time? If you're planning to play that game where you make me pick up gold coins again, forget it. I'm no longer in that line of work."
The crowd waiting to disembark was gradually thinning. Cid spoke casually while looking down at Alexia, whose entire fortune he estimated at less than twenty million, with the condescending gaze reserved for a pauper.
"Uh..."
When faced with the actual reason she had approached him, Alexia's carefully prepared words became lodged in her throat.
Although she had rehearsed her speech and made up her mind, saying something like, "I'll give you ten million, so stay away from my sister," was still far too embarrassing.
In fact, gathering the courage to warn Cid once during lunch had already been a rare moment of bravery for Alexia.
"I only... came to confirm one more time that I burned everything from last night to ashes. You should abandon those delusions as soon as possible. Otherwise, you'll only humiliate yourself, Pochi. Do you know what kind of person my sister hates most?"
Cid gave Alexia a strange look.
He was still curious about what unbelievable things Millia had shown Alexia through Eta's wondrous device the previous night, enough for her to remember them even now. Still, he answered the sudden question naturally.
"Someone irresponsible and shortsighted who clings to the powerful, uses improper methods to indulge personal greed and desire, and possesses no character whatsoever. That's roughly the kind of person she described."
"How do you know that?!"
Horror appeared on Alexia's face.
Even she did not know the answer to her own question. She had been planning to invent a description that matched Cid's characteristics, yet her Pochi had answered immediately.
As though realizing something, Alexia's face turned pale. She staggered several steps backward as if struck under the chin by an uppercut.
"I asked her. Those were her exact words. I match every part of the description. She was practically calling me out by name, so it seems I have no hope."
Pochi, if Onee-sama truly thought every one of those things applied to you, she would never act so close to you while telling you all of this!
Alexia screamed inwardly.
She felt as if she had been slapped across the face. After this conversation, an absurd possibility she had once dismissed as hopeless now appeared to have the slightest chance of becoming real in the future.
"Incidentally, since it was a rare opportunity to learn some gossip about important people, I also asked Princess Iris what kind of man she likes. She said she had never considered it because she would probably enter a political marriage. But if she had to name something she found appealing, it would be a sense of duty toward the nation."
Fuck, you're doing this on purpose, aren't you?!
Alexia stared fixedly at Cid and felt nothing but cold.
The sense of betrayal pressed against her chest until she could barely breathe. It seemed as though the entire world had turned against her.
The thought she had deliberately buried returned to the surface.
I'll use this sword to cut off Pochi's head. Rather than crying my eyes out after being betrayed, I should end everything now!
As for why her target had changed, this was not the dream, where the available details had omitted Princess Iris.
Alexia had never been able to defeat her sister. Now that Iris had spent more than a year fighting on the World Battlefield, Alexia stood even less of a chance.
Even if she launched a surprise attack, her sister would probably notice and kill her in return. Alexia would then be thrown into prison, where she would receive an invitation to Onee-sama and Pochi's wedding and weep alone.
Pochi, however, was different.
Even if he knew of her intentions in advance and prepared himself, and even if Onee-sama were standing beside him, Alexia was still confident that she could cut off this bastard head.
"Alexia, it's time to go. If we delay any longer, we'll miss the family banquet with Father."
After waiting for a while and seeing that time was running short, Iris approached and placed a hand on Alexia's shoulder, snapping her out of her rampaging thoughts.
"...Mm, Onee-sama."
Alexia glanced at her sword, still unable to make up her mind or convince herself. She forced a bitter smile and nodded.
Dreams were the opposite of reality.
How could she kill her only friend because of a dream?
"...Strange."
After Alexia and Iris left, and the crowd waiting to disembark had grown thinner, Cid stood and rubbed his chin.
"It feels as though someone narrowly escaped death, but it also feels as though I'm the one who survived."
Cid spoke in confusion.
A moment ago, he had suddenly sensed that some inexplicable disaster was about to strike him and bring him terrible misfortune.
So why had nothing happened?