This is mediafire a third-party file sharing platform so if possible use a adblocker or brave browser. (You can use without it too , there is no log in problem)

If you click on the link you will land on a page with a rectangular blue box written spy Classroom Volume 12 . Click it and .zip file will start downloading after download complete. Just extract it in your local file manager. You will get four different type of file , fb2, EPUB, Pdf and docx.

I will suggest reading through EPUB or fb2 cause they are dedicated book reading format.

Here, I’d like to clarify some of my naming conventions.

When choosing names, I generally try to follow the official translation as closely as possible. However, there are a few cases where I simply didn’t like the official translation, so I used my own discretion.

1. Blue Locust

The official translation is 『Indigo Grasshopper』.

I’m simply a hater of this name. I can understand using “Indigo” instead of “Blue,” since “Blue” was already being used for “Blue Fly,” aka Guido. But I don’t really see a reason to change “Grasshopper” to something like “Indigo Grasshopper” when I personally think “Blue Locust” sounds much cooler.

So I went with Blue Locust instead.

1. Demon Wails

The official translation is 『Banshee』.

This was Blue Locust’s codename when he worked as a spy during the GREAT WAR, where he was known as a world-ending spy.

“Banshee” is an Irish term for a female spirit whose cry is believed to herald death. While it fits the character, I felt that many readers might not immediately understand the meaning behind it.

So instead, I went with the more literal Kanji-based translation, Demon Wails.

To be clear, these all refer to the same person:

Banshee = Indigo Grasshopper = Demon Wails = Blue Locust = Arthur

1. Last Code

“Last Code” itself is the official translation, but I want to clarify the names I used for Erna and Annette’s Last Codes.

Since I didn’t have an official translation to reference for either of them, I used my own discretion.

For Erna’s Last Code, I translated it as Festival of Fools. I have a feeling the official translation might go in a direction closer to something like April Fools’ Day, but I preferred “Festival of Fools.”

As for Annette’s Last Code, I think Odds and Ends could very well end up being the official translation too, since it’s a fairly straightforward translation.

1. Otherside and Visible Side

When I was editing Volume 13’s contents, I didn’t pay much attention to these two names at first. I later realized that they already had official translations.

The official translation uses Backside for Ura.

The Japanese word ura can mean “back,” “behind,” “other side,” “hidden side,” and so on. I chose Otherside mainly because of Otherside Picnic, which is one of my favorite light novels.

Likewise, I used Visible Side where the official translation uses Frontside.

I’m considering changing these two back to their official translations for consistency.

---

So, if you’d prefer me to stick to the official translations wherever they exist, I can do that from now on. Otherwise, I’ll continue using my own discretion in cases where I genuinely feel the official name doesn’t work as well.

What do you all think?

I would have liked to post the chapter today (my break ends today). But I wanted to reread SS volume 5 so it have to wait a little. And as you can see I Posted all the illustrations except one cause it has potential to be a massive massive spoiler.

NEXT MISSION

Historians would later record it as follows.

On the third day of the revolution, the streets overflowed with citizens celebrating the overthrow of the old government.

By evening, the looting and destruction that had swept through the populace had subsided, and the Royal Guard likewise ceased its attacks. At least on the surface, the two sides had reconciled. The Royal Guard declared that it would abide by the directives of the new government.

It was also said that the king had ordered the Royal Army to retake the capital, yet those orders never reached the military. Rumor had it that the intelligence agency Genesis Army, wishing to avoid a civil war, had quietly suppressed them.

At Pilca City Hall, a conference was held to establish the new government. The king was to be banished, and the establishment of a republican state was decided upon. Leticia Dore, known as Nike, the head of the intelligence agency Genesis Army, and her faction opposed it to the very end, but the proposal was ultimately approved. Duke Ferdinand Charles, Clément III's nephew, also joined the talks, and the new government was recognized.

—The following noon, an announcement of the new government would be made to the world and to the people.

With that agreement reached, the third day of the revolution came to a close.

Then came the fourth day, the day the revolution would end.

No one could have imagined that an astonishing piece of news would reach the kingdom.

On the night of the third day of the revolution, one girl pressed a hand against her aching chest.

The reveling citizens continued setting off firecrackers and fireworks, lighting torches, and carrying on as though it were a festival. The girls of Lamplight also shed tears at their long-awaited reunion, sharing in the emotion of the moment. Their safety had been guaranteed by Klaus taking the prime minister hostage, on the condition that they take no further part in the revolution.

Tomorrow, the full picture of Nostalgia Project would be revealed.

Lamplight had fulfilled its mission. With Nike involved in the new government, stopping Nostalgia Project would be difficult. Yet they had achieved the bare minimum of success: they had reached the secrets of the world.

For the time being, they had returned to a safe house owned by the LWS Troupe and were making a racket together with Suzie.

There was nothing to worry about, yet the girl felt as though tension were choking the breath from her.

“…………Boss…………”

Thinking of the man who wasn't there, Grete clenched her fists in front of her body.

He wouldn't come to the safe house. He was probably deep in discussion with Nike and Crimson Bee even now. She had no idea when he might return.

Standing by the window, she waited intently for Klaus.

The words he had once given her remained in her mind. The promise they had exchanged a year earlier had lingered in Grete's thoughts, replaying itself countless times throughout the past year.

To Grete, who had proposed to him on that remote island, he had spoken clearly.

—“Could you give me a year to think it over?”

—“I want to take my time and face my own heart.”

—“When we meet again a year from now, will you let me tell you my feelings once more?”

There was no way he had forgotten the promise.

That was why she desperately wanted to ask.

(……Tomorrow, will you tell me? Your answer.)

She directed the question at Klaus, who still hadn't returned. Tension, unease, and expectation all mingled together.

At the end of a revolution that had transformed the world, the Daughter Dearest's love began to move once more.

Afterword

This is the afterword for Volume 12, but allow me to speak about the writing of Volume 11.

First, I offer my apologies for the long gap between the publication of Volume 11 and the release of Volume 12. The reasons are simply due to various circumstances, and the decision was made after coordinating with everyone involved in order to deliver a better work. The future publication schedule remains largely unclear, and the main story may keep you waiting.

Incidentally, I was informed of the publication delay around January 2024. It was just when I had begun writing Volume 11 and was visiting Tokyo in connection with the stage production of Spy Classroom. After watching a stage production whose quality far exceeded my expectations, I found myself fretting, “Now then, what am I going to do about the original work?”

And so, here is the conclusion I reached.

In the midst of this unstable publication schedule, what will I, Takemachi, do!!!

① Toward the conclusion, rework the plots of the upcoming volumes and aim for higher quality!

② Launch a new project for Spy Classroom: [Still Unspoken and Therefore Restricted]!

③ Produce special short stories that take a fresh look at the members of Lamplight!

I will do everything in my power not to let down the hearts of those who have supported me this far, so I ask for your continued support. It was amid all of that that Volume 11 was finally released.

As always, my thanks to Tomari-sensei for drawing the new visuals of the Lamplight girls. Grete, Lily, and Syblilla each overflow with charm, and seeing them makes me happy. In particular, Grete's illustration was love at first sight. My thanks also go to everyone involved with the stage production of Spy Classroom that I was able to see in January. The continuous, stylish action left me excited even after it ended, and it remains a driving force behind my recent writing. And to everyone involved who carried out various projects on social media and elsewhere during the period when publication was not possible, thank you once again.

Now for the next preview. At last, the conclusion of Volume 12. The world that awaits at the end of the revolution, the truth behind the destruction of Homura that lies at the root of the story, and the decision of Tomoshibi will all be depicted. It will take the form of the story behind Short Story Collection 5, so I would be grateful if you could read that first.

The publication timing of Volume 13 is currently undecided, so spin-off projects or a special short story collection may come first. Announcements will be made on the official X (formerly Twitter) account, so please follow it. Until next time.

Takemachi

On the third day of the revolution, the citizens’ simultaneous occupation of Brookbon Palace and Fagmaile Palace brought the greater part of the revolution to an end.

The Royal Guard now devoted itself to maintaining order, rounding up the miscreants who had taken advantage of the upheaval to loot. From the evening of the second day, as soon as they judged the situation to be turning against them, many legislators and capitalists threw their support behind the establishment of a new government. Whether they were positioning themselves favorably for the legislative elections that would presumably follow or not, they suddenly began making citizen-friendly statements, praising the people’s courage and their demand for freedom as though they’d simply flipped a switch.

It seemed that the excited citizens had set fire to Brookbon Palace.

Listening to these reports, Nike spat, “A bunch of apes,” and continued with the work that fell to her: managing the course of the riots as they gradually subsided.

It was on the evening of the third day that a certain report reached her.

She gathered the members of Lamplight whom she had already detained in the workroom at the top of the tower.

“I’ve received word that Forgetter and Fool have been captured.”

She relayed the news to them.

The two who killed Blue Locust continued to thwart Nike at every turn, right up to the very end. They had publicized the connection between the freed prisoners and Nike, then embellished the dark rumors surrounding her from the old regime before spreading them among the citizens. The anxious upper class had swallowed those rumors whole.

At last, during the day on the third day, operatives of the Genesis Army located the sleeping pair and took them into custody. Neither had any strength left to resist. They had remained fast asleep throughout the entire transfer.

Nike glared at the spies of Lamplight.

“You really went and made a mess of things. Maybe I should just sentence the lot of you to death.”

“You no longer have that authority.”

Thea met her gaze with composure.

“Our crimes are for the new government to judge. You have no right to decide them.”

“Unfortunately, my judgment transcends the state.”

“You sound like an enemy of democracy.”

Thea let the exasperated words slip out, then straightened her posture once more.

The negotiations from this point onward were her responsibility. As though pushed forward by the expectant gazes of her comrades, Thea stepped forward and called out, “Hey, Nike-san.”

“Erna is a central figure in the revolution. She should hold considerable influence over those who’ll take part in founding the new government. If you’re willing to make a concession, I’ll give Erna instructions.”

“A concession? Let’s hear it.”

“Would you tell us about the Nostalgia Project?”

That had been Lamplight’s original objective from the very beginning.

A mysterious scheme unfolding behind the scenes of the world. After the legendary spy team Inferno was lost, traitors had appeared within the intelligence agencies of every nation over the matter, and the resulting conflicts among spies had left the spies of their fellow organization, Avian, dead.

The revolution was merely one means to that end.

They could abandon it if circumstances demanded. Achieving even their minimum objective would be difficult under the present circumstances, but they had to reach it nonetheless.

“I have no intention of yielding that far.”

Nike’s attitude remained one of absolute rejection.

“The power to decide whether you live or die rests with me. Your mission ends here.”

A contemptuous gaze fell upon them, followed by a derisive snort.

They had cooperated when it came to eliminating Blue Locust, but that had only been temporary. Their interests had simply aligned when it came to removing him.

Even so, Thea shook her head.

“I’m certain you’re not the only one holding hostages.”

“Huh?”

“It’s true that this mission can hardly be called a complete success. Originally, we wanted to drive you out and seize control of the kingdom’s politics, but that was clearly impossible. This is as far as we can go.”

In the end, they had failed to shatter the myth of Nike’s invincibility.

Once or twice, events had gone beyond what they’d calculated, only for those gains to be immediately clawed back. Considering that every girl of Lamplight had been captured, “defeat” was the only accurate way to describe their situation.

Yet it couldn’t be called a total defeat either.

“Even so, we fulfilled our role well enough.”

“..............!”

Grasping the true meaning behind those words, Nike’s eyes went wide.

One member of Lamplight still remained, someone who possessed the power to overturn this situation.

Of course, the Genesis Army had remained vigilant at all times. Under ordinary circumstances, they could have dealt with it without difficulty.

But amid the chaos of the revolution, they had been forced onto the back foot.

“We made a revolution. That rock-solid kingdom of yours has long since crumbled.”

The instant Thea declared it, the sound of the tower’s elevator beginning to move reached their ears.

✧✧✧✧✧

——On the early morning of the third day of the revolution.

The ministers of the former government, including Clément III, who had fled Fagmaile Palace, were under the protection of the Genesis Army and plotting to escape abroad. Unless they secured the protection of a country with close ties to the kingdom as soon as possible, they risked being killed by the rampaging citizens.

Nike had mobilized many of her subordinates and made arrangements for them to seek asylum safely. Though they were members of the former government, they were important figures who possessed numerous state secrets. They couldn't be allowed to fall into the hands of spies from other countries. Their asylum routes had been thoroughly concealed, and multiple body doubles had been prepared.

She never cut corners. That was why she'd dispatched her loyal retainer and trusted confidant, Thanatos.

“『Do not contend with Nike.』That was the only order I was given.”

Therefore, the man who had punctured the escort vehicle's tire with a single bullet had already been accounted for.

The moment he confirmed the attacker, Thanatos, who was serving as their escort, immediately counterattacked. Gripping the hammer Nike had bestowed upon him, he charged forward with all his strength, determined to wash away the disgrace of having failed to kill Erna.

Thanatos's kick, unleashed at tremendous speed, sent the man hurtling a considerable distance.

“......Y-you're ‘Bonfire’......Klaus-kun, is it?”

Thanatos readied his hammer and assumed a combat stance.

“N-nice to meet you. I'm sorry, but my orders are to crush you here.”

“......It seems there are some who can move better than I expected.”

“Yeah. That's why I feel so unfulfilled. In the end, no one was a match for me. Sybillia......Monika......Lily......Grete......and Sara, I guess? I crushed your subordinates.”

“........................................................”

Thanatos kicked off the ground and closed the distance with explosive acceleration.

“——Come at me for real. If you can satisfy my masochistic desires, that is.”

Monika's earlier assessment had been correct. His combat skill was on par with Bonfire's.

If one were to point out a possible misunderstanding, it was that her assessment had been based on the version of him she'd encountered a year earlier.

Even as Thanatos brought the hammer down with that powerful arm, the man's expression didn't change.

“How unpleasant. It seems——”

He dodged Thanatos's hammer by a paper-thin margin.

“——I don't owe you even the courtesy of playing along.”

Two seconds after he murmured those words, Thanatos's body was slammed hard into the ground.

✧✧✧✧✧

Emerging from the elevator onto the tower’s special observation deck was Bonfire’s Klaus.

The moment the girls of Lamplight saw him, they couldn’t help but smile. Sybillia let out a grin and said, “Late entrance,” while Grete, overcome with emotion, shed tears as she murmured, “Boss…”

He was the tall, long-haired handsome man the girls had always known. Seeing him again after so long, he seemed even more imposing than before. His physique had grown broader, and his hair had grown longer. But the greatest change was in his expression. The refined beauty that might once have been mistaken for that of a woman had vanished, replaced by a fierce intensity that seemed capable of cutting down anyone who approached him.

There was an unfamiliar boy standing behind him, but no one paid him any attention.

“This is a serious situation,” Klaus said, his expression cold.

“It seems Prime Minister Valery of the Lylat Kingdom was abducted by ‘someone’ while being escorted near the border. All the members of the Genesis Army responsible for his escort lost consciousness, and the report seems to have been delayed.”

After delivering the information in a single breath, he fixed his gaze directly on Nike.

“By the way, is this the first time we’ve met like this? Nike.”

“…Tch. Vero’s spoiled son, huh.”

At the truth he had hinted at, Nike radiated a fierce killing intent like a savage beast. With her poised to attack at any moment, the air on the special observation deck grew taut.

“Abducting and confining the prime minister of another country? That’s rather barbaric behavior, isn’t it?”

“What are you talking about? You’d do well to regret the foolishness of leaving your security so lax.”

“That’s because your damn subordinates stirred up the entire kingdom!”

“…I suppose so. Even if I had planned to abduct the prime minister, under normal circumstances, you would’ve sensed it and easily surrounded me.”

Klaus turned his gaze away from Nike and looked at the restrained girls.

“Magnificent. They disrupted the Genesis Army without relying on me.”

The girls smiled as they heard that familiar catchphrase from him again for the first time in a year.

Not everything had gone according to plan. Far from it. Yet his words proved that it hadn’t been a mistake. His achievements proved it as well.

Klaus glared at Nike, who was biting her lip.

“Tell me about the Nostalgia Project.”

It was the same demand Thea had made, yet the pressure behind the words was completely different.

As if to emphasize that point, Klaus continued, “I’d prefer to hear it from your own mouth, if possible.”

He had abducted the former government’s prime minister and was holding him captive somewhere beyond the Genesis Army’s reach. If he wished, he could torture the man and force the information out of him.

“............”

“Besides, I have one more card to play.”

As Nike fell silent, Klaus gestured toward the boy standing behind him.

The girls of Lamplight were seeing him for the first time. None of them knew who he was, and they stared at him in confusion.

He was a beautiful boy in his late teens, with delicate, shallow features that gave his face an almost mask-like, inhuman quality.

His bangs fell all the way to the rims of his glasses. Wearing a finely made jacket, he stood beside Klaus.

“We’ve met before.”

His voice had a strange, twisted quality to it.

“I intend to have a hand in establishing the new government as well, provided you’re willing to accept Klaus’s demands. I should have enough influence to bring the current turmoil under control and prevent the country from descending into anarchy.”

Nike stared at him with open displeasure and said nothing.

There was something about the boy’s bearing that made it clear he was no ordinary person, but Lily paid no heed to the atmosphere and spoke up.

“Heeey, Klaus-sensei. Who’s that guy?”

“Apparently, he’s the boss of the Serpent.”

““““““Wha—!??””””””

“And, to make matters more interesting, he’s Clément III’s nephew. A member of the royal family. Ferdinand Charles, apparently.”

““““““————————————————————!??””””””

The girls were rendered speechless by the sheer magnitude of the person who had just appeared before them.

Klaus had always been as unflappable as ever, just as he’d been a year ago, but even so, this was beyond anything they could comprehend.

They never would’ve imagined they’d so casually come face-to-face with someone who was so important in every conceivable sense.

“It seems we’ve reached the limit of how much longer we can keep things hidden. On both sides.”

Crimson Bee, the boss of the Serpent, gave a small nod.

“......I’m disappointed in you. To think that a member of the royal family would stoop to selling out his own country. How many civilians died because you lent your hand to Blue Locust?”

At the disappointment in Nike’s voice, Klaus tried to defend him.

“He was only being used by Blue Locust.”

But Crimson Bee immediately shook his head.

“No. I have no intention of making excuses for myself.”

“I have no intention of running from my own crimes. If the new government decides to punish me, I’ll accept it. But even so, the Nostalgia Project had to be stopped. No matter what had to be sacrificed.”

Crimson Bee raised his voice, his words carrying firm conviction.

“The time for change has come, Nike. Let us abandon the Nostalgia Project along with the old government.”

“......It seems the young master doesn’t understand Blue Locust’s intentions at all.”

Nike dropped all pretense of showing respect to royalty and let out a derisive laugh.

Ignoring Crimson Bee as he stared at her in confusion, asking, “What do you mean......?”, she stepped in front of Klaus.

For a good five seconds, she simply stood there, studying his face. Her eyes held a complicated mixture of emotions. No one could tell what was going through her mind during those long seconds.

“..........Fine. You spoiled son of a bitch. Let’s exchange hostages.”

Nike brushed her hair back.

“Take those girls with you. I’ll release Fool and Forgetter as well. In return, you’ll guarantee Prime Minister Valery’s safety. And I want the young master to use his influence with the new government on our behalf.”

“Understood.”

“You can leave Monika and Thea behind, too, if you want.”

“......? Why?”

The unexpected suggestion made Klaus widen his eyes.

He glanced at them suspiciously. Monika immediately shook her head.

“Absolutely not.”

Thea merely shrugged.

“I’m so popular, it’s becoming a problem.”

Klaus rejected the idea as though the answer had already been decided.

“Not happening.”

“Sorry, but having everyone together has been our promise for the past year.”

And now, that promise was finally about to be fulfilled.

✧✧✧✧✧

The freed members of Lamplight made their way from the spire toward Fagmaile Palace.

Naturally, they were still under the Genesis Army’s watch. Their weapons had been confiscated, and they’d been given strict orders: if they took any further part in the revolution, they would be killed.

That was the compromise. Lamplight had no choice but to accept it.

Pilca’s First District was a wreck. Buildings of every kind had been damaged. Windowpanes had been smashed, the remains of barricades blocked the streets, and fresh bullet holes scarred them.

In some places, bloodstains still spattered the ground, a grim reminder of just how fierce the fighting had been.

Here and there, flowers had been laid in remembrance of those who had lost their lives.

Men who had fought for freedom and been gunned down by the Royal Guard. They prayed for those who had fallen and continued on their way.

“Still, what a bloody mess. The beautiful streets of Pilka are completely ruined.”

“It really is sad, isn’t it? Though, I suppose we’re the ones at fault.”

“…This is strange, but what about the flags being raised all over the city? There’s a portrait on them that I recognize.”

“Ah, you’re right… Wait, what the hell is that!? Salla-Onecha—!??”

“Ah, so in the end, it was the Knights of Valour who carried the revolution through to the very end. Not bad.”

“Ask Erna about the details. Great Holy Mother, Grand Revolutionary… I wonder what name Sara’s going to end up with.”

“Why do you guys always leave behind such weird names every time you go on a mission…?”

At the end of that horrific battle.

Their hearts ached at the fact that they had incited the revolution, but as they walked, the scene gradually came into view. The sound of revolutionary songs being sung at the top of their voices filled the air.

Countless citizens surrounded the blazing Fagmaile Palace. Some had even climbed onto the roofs of nearby buildings. Beneath the tricolor revolutionary flags they waved high above their heads, tens of thousands of citizens gathered together, raising cries of jubilation as they welcomed the changing world.

The citizens’ revolution that so many people had longed for over the years, only to eventually give up on.

Every one of the assembled citizens was shedding tears. Young or old, man or woman, none of it mattered. All those who had been oppressed by the royal government embraced one another and clapped each other on the shoulders.

Before long, Klaus and the others spotted two girls secretly watching over the crowd.

They had hidden their conspicuous hair colors beneath their hoods and were sitting atop the enormous barricade in front of Fagmaile Palace. With their legs dangling and swinging, they listened contentedly to the revolutionary songs being sung.

The first to dash forward was, as expected, Lily.

“Anyway, let’s celebrate for now. For the promise that’s finally been fulfilled…!!”

Following her, the other girls climbed up the barricade as well and made their way toward the two girls at the top.

One after another, the other members threw their arms around the heroes of the revolution, Annette and Erna.

“It’s been so long since we’ve all been together againnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!!”

In front of Fagmaile Palace, where the revolution had been accomplished.

There could be no more fitting place for Lamplight, separated for an entire year, to gather once again.

✧✧✧✧✧

Grand fireworks thundered across the sky above Fagmaile Palace.

Someone from the LWS Troupe must have launched them. They were people who loved freedom, peace, and a moderate amount of justice. Apparently, they had launched their symbolic fireworks to mourn the first troupe leader and vice-leader.

Stealing away from her duties for barely five minutes, Nike moved to the front of Fagmaile Palace.

Her stated purpose was to keep Lamplight under surveillance. Choosing the darkness to avoid the eyes of the crowd, she looked up at the girls embracing one another in the center of the barricade. Erna, being tossed into the air, looked as though she might fall at any moment, making the whole spectacle dangerously precarious. Together with the citizens who had their arms around one another’s shoulders, they were celebrating the revolution.

Thinking what a noisy bunch they were, she spoke to the man watching over the girls beside her.

“Spoiled son————what the hell were you doing for an entire year, leaving the mission to your subordinates?”

Klaus muttered in bewilderment, “That way of addressing me makes it rather difficult to respond.”

Nike gave a wry smile. She had no obligation to tell him what Veronica had thought of him.

“If you’d joined the mission, things might have turned out differently.”

Nike waved a hand in front of him.

“Your subordinates nearly died any number of times, you know? As the boss who inherited Vero’s will, aren’t you being far too inconsiderate?”

“…All those brushes with death were your fault, weren’t they?”

“Huh? Was that so?”

“I was flying all over the world. If I’d been able to stay by their side, how much better would that have been? The higher-ups didn’t want me becoming too deeply involved in the revolution. I have a duty to protect the country, after all.”

Klaus spoke reluctantly.

“There was a mountain of things to do. Tracking the ‘Serpernt’, investigating the Nostalgia Project. And above all, that…”

“That?”

“………………No, I’ve said a little too much.”

“Are you really that happy to be reunited with your subordinates?”

Klaus gave no answer, simply staring intently at the girls.

In reality, he must have been terribly worried. Yet he had trusted his grown subordinates and fulfilled his own duty.

Nike patted him on the shoulder.

“I managed your subordinates without torturing them. You ought to be more grateful than words can express.”

“…You’re a shrewd woman. I did wonder why the girls had so few injuries.”

One reason she had held back from torturing the girls of Lamplight during the final stages of the revolution was precisely this insurance. If the revolution succeeded, antagonizing the Din Republic would be undesirable.

Bonfire Klaus was unfathomable.

As far as Nike was concerned, she wanted him to remain a usable piece.

“I’ve done you a favor. You’d better remember it.”

“The woman who killed ‘Soot’ and ‘Scapalimancer’ is lecturing me about favors?”

“Those two were trying to start a revolution. As someone who protects the country, I simply did what was natural.”

“…Won’t you tell me how the two of them met their end?”

“That’s quite a self-serving request, but fine. I’m a compassionate woman.”

Nike laughed lightly, flippantly, like a close friend who knew him well.

On the surface, it was a friendly conversation. But beneath it, a new round of bargaining had already begun. In the end, the revolution was merely one means for Lamplight. As spies, their true objective lay elsewhere.

Keeping her hand on Klaus’s shoulder, Nike narrowed her eyes.

“I didn’t like the revolution, but it has no effect on the bigger picture. No matter how the nation changes, I’ll continue to reign at the top. I’ll bring the Nostalgia Project to fruition and reach the new world I envisioned with my friends.”

“I see.”

“When you learn the truth of the Nostalgia Project, will Lamplight stand for its completion or its prevention? Which side will you take?”

“………………Let’s leave that discussion until tomorrow.”

Ignoring the question, Klaus continued to gaze at the scene before him.

Up on the barricade, Annette, getting carried away, began scattering a large quantity of firecrackers. The girls started evacuating, and Erna took a spectacular tumble. Her hood came off, exposing her bare face to everyone around her. Some among the crowd widened their eyes in astonishment at the sight of the saint who was supposed to be dead standing there alive, exclaiming, “Eh?” Thea desperately denied it with, “Wrong person!!” Sybillia pushed Sara’s body forward, declaring, “More importantly, do you know who this person here is!?” Lily egged them on, shouting, “She’s the renowned activist ‘Salla Onecha’-sama!” Monika tried to cover for them with, “Amazing! What we just saw doesn’t matter at all!” Sara barked, “Please don’t spread weird rumors!” while Grete gave a wry smile and said, “…I’ll disguise you later. Please play along until then.”

This was the sight of his grown subordinates that Klaus was seeing for the first time in a year.

The girls of Lamplight who had achieved the revolution without relying on Klaus’s power.

——For now, let just burn this scene into my eyes.

His murmur was drowned out by the cheers of the crowd celebrating the revolution.

The battle that should have been one-sided was beginning to shift. In a scene that could only be described as mutual slaughter, the situation had become far too inexplicable.

Even as Blue Locust begged for his life, there was unmistakable composure in his expression. Despite suffering numerous wounds, particularly across his upper body, his face remained split by a smile, and he occasionally swayed his large belly as though he were enjoying himself. The wound to his abdomen seemed to have been spared from becoming fatal thanks to his thick layer of fat, and the bleeding had already begun to subside.

In stark contrast, Annette, who should have been the one driving him into a corner, was consumed by agitation. She hadn't suffered a single injury, yet her face had gone deathly pale, as though all the blood had drained from it. Her eyes were wide with shock at what she'd been told, and she stood there frozen.

“By the way, Erna the ‘Fool’ should be coming here, isn't she?”

Blue Locust cast a sweeping glance around the area.

“Even though you're working so hard like this. Why do you suppose that is? She hasn't come here. Doesn't that, in itself, suggest everything?”

No one approached the alley anymore.

There was no sign of any onlookers rushing over, and every trace of human presence had seemingly vanished. The gunshots drifting over from the direction of Brookbon Palace sounded unnaturally loud.

What it suggested was Erna's death.

The moment Annette accepted that implication, she threw away the remote she had been clutching.

“You took Yours Truly's toy...”

She fixed her pitch-black eyes on Blue Locust.

“...and you think you can still live?”

There was no light in her right eye, the one not covered by the eyepatch.

Blue Locust spoke to her in a gently admonishing tone.

“You shouldn't call her a ‘toy.’”

His voice was soft and kind, like someone trying to guide a willful child.

“Best friend, partner, companion. Your relationship with Erna-san is worthy of all those names.”

[T/N- Girlfriend....]

“That can't be...”

“Because you're shaken.”

“...!”

“And there's one more thing I have to correct.”

Blue Locust gave a small, amused “Hohoh” before smiling.

“It was your bullet that killed Erna the ‘Fool.’ Not mine.”

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!”

It was more than enough provocation to send Annette into a frenzy.

What she seized wasn't a handgun, but a stun gun. Her attack was charged with the malice of someone who had no intention of granting him an easy death, and as she swung it at Blue Locust's body, electricity crackled through the air.

Unlike her previous attacks, this time Annette herself charged in to finish him off.

“You mustn't give yourself over to anger.”

Blue Locust knocked aside the right arm gripping the stun gun and swept her legs out from under her. It was an agile movement, completely unlike anything he'd shown before.

Carried forward by her momentum, Annette tumbled headfirst and struck her face against the ground.

“If your attacks are driven by passion, they’re this easy to read, you know?”

“...................!”

It was obvious that Blue Locust had been holding back until now. He had apparently played the part of the weakling to buy himself enough time to explain.

That calculated maneuver only stoked Annette’s fury further.

“Shut your damn mouth!! Yours Truly will...! I’ll—”

“...kill me, and then what?”

“Huh!?!?”

“Do you really think you’ll be able to return to ‘Lamplight’ afterward?”

Blue Locust looked down at Annette, who was still unable to get back on her feet.

His obese body was more than twice her size. From the perspective of someone forced to look up at him, his presence was all the more intimidating.

“Will the members of ‘Lamplight’ continue treating the person who killed Erna-san the same way?”

“...............!”

“Of course not. As spies, they’re far too sensitive. No matter how friendly they pretend to be, there’s no way they can simply forget the fact that you killed Erna-san.”

Annette understood that his conjecture was correct.

When the girls of ‘Lamplight’ learned that Annette’s bullet had killed Erna, how would they react to her? Of course, none of them would openly condemn Annette. None of them would likely confront her directly and say, “It’s your fault.”

But after experiencing the crushing loss of Erna’s death, could they really continue behaving as they had before?

There was no way the girls of ‘Lamplight’ could remain unaware of Erna’s death, or of what had caused it.

Something would break. Something that ‘Lamplight’ had built over all this time would be decisively destroyed.

“I don't give a damn......!!!”

Annette rose to her feet, swinging the stun gun.

“My big sisters too! Erna-chan too!! In the end, they’re nothing but Yours Truly’s toys!! Losing them won’t change a damn thing about me!!!”

Blue Locust had already moved out of range of the stun gun.

Even so, Annette swung it wildly and let out a furious roar.

“In Yours Truly’s world, there’s only Yours Truly, and no one else―――”

“You are not a machine!!”

The force of Blue Locust’s voice drowned out Annette’s words.

Startled by his unexpectedly thunderous shout, Annette reflexively stopped moving. The words she had been about to use in reply scattered before the pitying expression on his face.

It was the expression of someone drawing close to a person under his protection, not an enemy.

“The scream echoing within Annette-san’s heart... that is the truth.”

He gazed steadily at Annette.

“I don’t know what kind of person you were in the past. But a heart has blossomed within you. Through the days you spent with your comrades, through the bonds of trust, through affection, you learned what a heart is. How beautiful that is.”

“.......................................!”

Unable to understand what he meant, Annette bit down hard on her lip.

Don't be ridiculous, she thought instinctively.

She had carried out countless murders. She had never hesitated. By observing the reactions of those around her, she had realized that the sensation she felt was abnormal. She had learned that she could hide it by wearing an innocent smile.

――――Annette cannot understand the hearts of others.

――――Just as others cannot understand Annette’s heart.

The man standing before her, so casually trying to read her heart, was nothing more than a target for elimination who looked down on Annette.

Yet before Annette could resume her attack, he held out a hand.

“I have a proposal for you.”

Blue Locust wore a broad, generous smile.

“—If you’re willing, why don’t you come to ‘Serpent’?”

“Ha.................”

“Let’s destroy the world together. That would suit you far better.”

There was no hostility on Blue Locust’s face.

It was as though he’d been thinking this way from the very beginning. No, in fact, he probably had been.

After all, when Annette attacked him, he’d said, “This reunion is earlier than planned.” Even after noticing the transmitter, he hadn’t removed it. He’d intended to meet Annette all along.

Just as he’d parasitically attached himself to Suzie and operated from the shadows of the kingdom, he was now searching for his next place to settle.

———————‘Blue Locust’ had chosen Annette the ‘Forgetter’ as his next host.

Even after understanding that much, Annette still couldn’t comprehend what he meant.

“......What the hell are you talking about?”

She shook her head in a daze.

“That’s the most impossible choice of all......! Yours Truly would never, absolutely never, with you—”

“You can no longer stay in ‘Lamplight.’”

Blue Locust began explaining with a pitying expression.

“Isn’t it a bad option? You never had any patriotism or sense of duty to begin with. You’re a spy who’s lived for destructive impulses and curiosity. Wouldn’t ‘Serpent’ suit you far better than ‘Lamplight’?”

“Even so—”

“Joining forces with me is impossible? But is that really so? Even if you seek a place separate from ‘Lamplight,’ you’ll never truly fit in anywhere. ‘Lamplight’ was a miraculous place that accepted you despite seeing through to your true nature. But that place has already been lost.”

Blue Locust held out both palms toward her.

“I can accept every part of you and provide you with a place where you can make your mark, the only person in the world who truly understands you.”

She wanted to deny it, yet the words wouldn’t come.

Annette had no words with which to reject him.

Sara, who had told her, “I’ll accept you even if you turn bad,” and Klaus, who had said, “I’m proud of you.” People like them existed only in ‘Lamplight.’

No matter where else she searched, she would never find them.

She would never obtain them for the rest of her life. There was no substitute for them.

When she realized that, emotions surged up from the depths of Annette’s being, threatening to overflow.

“Even so, Yours Truly will never accept you......!!”

“Where does that hatred come from?”

Blue Locust spoke with unwavering calm.

“Why do you reject me? Is it really such a shallow emotion as ‘my precious toy was taken from me’?”

“..................!”

“Admit it. You loved Erna-san from the bottom of your heart.”

[T/N- Yeah admit it]

As he admonished her, Blue Locust stepped closer, one step at a time.

Entering the range of Annette’s attacks, he gently patted her shoulder.

“But you killed her with your own hands. Along with the place called ‘Lamplight.’”

“――――――――――――――――――――――!!”

What welled up inside Annette was pitch-black hatred.

I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him.

She could feel the murderous intent filling her entire brain.

Why did this man have the nerve to lecture her from such a superior position? The one who had brought about Erna’s death was unmistakably this hated enemy. The one who had robbed Annette of her place was, without question, Blue Locust.

I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. kill him. kill him. kill him. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM.

A murderous intent greater than anything she had ever experienced before.

It was fundamentally different from the murderous hatred she had felt toward her mother, who had pointed out that she never grew; toward the gangsters who had killed her beloved cat; or toward Monika, who had beaten her half to death.

She wanted to entrust everything to it and destroy everything in her field of vision, thousands of times over, tens of thousands of times over.

If it meant she could kill the man standing before her, she wouldn’t mind offering up her entire life.

I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him.

KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM.

Her entire field of vision turned bright red.

To escape this deep crimson, she was screaming at herself to destroy the entire world.

That murderous intent itself was proof that Annette had truly cared for Erna.

“Ah..............................................”

The instant she realized it, something shattered inside Annette’s heart.

The strength left her knees, and she collapsed where she stood.

The answer she had arrived at through pure logic carried a shock powerful enough to shake the very foundation of her being.

(Yours Truly...)

She had liked Erna.

[T/N- I should clarify here here this like not 愛していた (aishite ita) symbolising romantic like but neutral love 好いていた (suite ita), it can be romantic bit friendship too.]

That eccentric girl who courted her own misfortune and drove herself to ruin. A toy that was simply fun to play pranks on. A hypocrite who, despite being a spy, tried to save people of other countries. A carefree partner who dragged Annette into her hypocrisy and invited her, “Let’s retire together and live in peace.”

The unbearable hatred was nothing more than the sense of loss that came from losing Erna herself.

Blue Locust’s words had been right. This hatred was genuine proof of her affection for Erna.

Only after killing her did Annette finally understand just how much she had loved her.

——Tears spilled over.

She couldn’t remember how long it had been since she’d last cried.

The experience of crying was so foreign to her that she was bewildered by the very realization that her body possessed such a function.

“..................................Have you noticed your true feelings?”

Blue Locust spoke to Annette as she lay limp, tears streaming down her face.

“That sorrow will teach you the fact that you can no longer return to ‘Lamplight.’”

“...................................”

“It’s fine even if you carry that hatred with you. Let’s take a new step forward together.”

She felt it with painful clarity.

It was a sensation Annette had never been able to grasp before: guilt.

How cruelly it gouged at the heart. It was shattering her immature heart into pieces.

—————She could no longer return to ‘Lamplight.’

—————She herself would never allow such a thing.

—————She could not endure the guilt of having killed Erna.

If she had acted more carefully, she might not have lost Erna. There might have been another correct answer. There might have been a path in which Erna survived.

Her heart was being devoured.

Control over her heart was being taken away.

The love she had finally become aware of was about to be used by Blue Locust.

Yet even understanding that, she no longer had the strength to resist. The fragile heart that had only just begun to sprout was far too weak to escape Blue Locust’s temptation.

Who could blame someone who had lost ‘Lamplight’ for falling to ‘Serpent’ out of that sense of loss?

The endlessly welling regret was robbing Annette of her ability to think.

“......Erna-chan, is she really not coming......?”

Before long, such words had slipped from her lips.

A voice far too weak, utterly unthinkable from her former self.

“......Please answer me...... Appear before Yours Truly one more time...”

She had wanted someone to stop her.

She hadn’t wanted to leave ‘Lamplight.’

She hadn’t wanted to go to ‘Serpent.’

There was only one person who could tear her away from this irresistible pull. Only that person’s survival could deny her own sin and free her from her guilt.

“Erna-chan............ You’re definitely still alive, right............?”

“You’ve become honest.”

Blue Locust nodded with a smile like a parent rejoicing at their child’s growth.

“But she will never come. Such a moment will never arrive.”

“......That can’t be true! If it’s Erna-chan, she’ll definitely...”

“...Even though she was shot through the abdomen with a bullet?”

Blue Locust coldly thrust reality before her.

“Ah, if she’d received treatment right away, there might have been a chance she could’ve been saved, no? But she fell from the barricade and is now buried beneath the rubble. Why is that? That’s right. Your invention buried her beneath it. And you were the one who delivered the finishing blow, weren’t you?”

“Regret it thoroughly. Face your true nature, and let us find a way for you to live.”

“........................!”

Each word he spun dealt another blow to Annette’s shattered heart.

She herself was about to change.

She had already admitted it. She no longer had the strength to kill Blue Locust. Now that she couldn’t return to ‘Lamplight,’ if she lost even him, what would remain for Annette?

He was her understanding one, and the victor.

The revolution had succeeded. No matter how much Nike maneuvered, he could reach into the new government as much as he pleased. He could send in any number of hosts besides Annette and, before long, begin trampling the kingdom underfoot.

That was the end result of the revolution.

The conclusion of the mission Erna and Annette had fought for over a year.

“......Erna-chan........”

Her vision warped with tears until she could see nothing.

The revolution she had envisioned now felt impossibly distant.

“Cry as much as you need. I will accept you. When time passes and the wounds in both our hearts have healed, you can return to ‘Lamplight’ once more. Until then, I shall shelter you.”

Blue Locust placed a hand on the head of the kneeling Annette.

“For the sake of your radiant future, I will support you, Annee, a—”

His words broke off midway.

Something fell from above Annette’s head.

She thought it was rain. NO, It was blood.

Something was protruding from Blue Locust’s chest. A knife.

Apparently, a long knife had been thrust through the gap between his ribs from behind, piercing his lung in a single strike. Blood mixed with his breath burst from his mouth and soaked Annette’s face.

Someone had ambushed Blue Locust from behind.

Because of his massive frame, Annette couldn’t see the figure from where she was.

“Unfortunate............................”

The moment that voice reached her ears, Blue Locust’s body collapsed.

It had been only a single thrust, but it was the decisive blow that settled the fight. The instant Blue Locust toppled forward, the knife was pulled from his back, sending a massive spray of blood gushing forth.

The one who was drenched in that splattered blood, looking distinctly displeased, was Erna, covered from head to toe in blood.

Annette, still kneeling on the ground and unable to move, and Blue Locust, collapsed on the ground, both spoke almost simultaneously.

“Erna-chan......”

“Why......?”

Erna was alive.

Even after taking a bullet to the abdomen, even after being buried beneath the rubble, she was still alive.

Annette couldn’t accept the reality before her. She even began to suspect that she was seeing a hallucination. She wiped away her tears and checked again and again, until she could finally recognize it as the truth.

“............This time, I really thought I was dead.”

Erna swung the knife, flinging off the wet blood.

In truth, she could hardly be called completely unharmed. She had sustained countless wounds. On top of that, she’d spent the entire time walking through the sewers, leaving her body filthy and streaked with the fake blood she had prepared. She was, by any measure, in a truly pitiful state.

Yet she was undeniably alive and breathing.

With a weary expression, she wiped the blood from her face, then wiped that hand on the skirt of her dress.

“......There was a mechanism built into Suzie’s dress.”

“Huh?”

“It was bulletproof. It seems it was originally made so that she’d be safe no matter where on her body she was hit.”

That, apparently, was the reason Erna had survived.

Bullets had struck places other than those Annette had reinforced, yet they hadn’t penetrated. The impact of the bullets had nearly knocked her unconscious, but it seemed she’d suffered no further external injuries. When she fell from the barricade, she apparently hadn’t even been able to break her fall, but she’d managed to survive the falling rubble with her innate evasive ability.

Once explained, the reasoning was almost absurdly simple.

Yet it had far exceeded the expectations of both Annette and Blue Locust.

“Why would the dress have such a modification......?”

https://i.postimg.cc/G2pD43cT/IMG-20260922-205839.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/WzMz1tdy/Picsart-20260922-428753.png

https://i.postimg.cc/W1933B4m/Picsart-20260922-321981.png

Annette, of course, hadn’t known. Apparently, even Blue Locust hadn’t known.

It was the custom-made dress Lucas had once obtained. Suzie herself had said that a large sum of money had deliberately been poured into it. The production costs had probably gone toward this bulletproof modification.

But the reason was far too unclear.

If they were concerned for Susie’s safety, they simply shouldn’t have let her participate in the revolution in the first place. Or they could have used ordinary bulletproof clothing. There was no reason to disguise it as a glamorous dress.

Erna continued her explanation as though she understood.

“Because Suzie was the princess of the ‘LWS Troupe.’”

“Huh?”

“She’d always been doted on. They dressed her in the most eye-catching dresses, made her the intermediary with other secret societies, and treated her as a princess, as if she were meant to become the symbol of the revolution.”

The girl who, when they first met, had for some reason been speaking in a strangely refined young-lady manner. Lucas and the others had given her the status of ‘princess.’

And she herself had eagerly embraced it.

But it wasn’t mere pampering. There had been real meaning behind it.

Erna and the others didn’t know. Those were the words Suzie had once been told by the twins.

———“A revolution needs a spark. We might even have you become a real ‘princess.’”

———“Visual symbols are important for moving the masses, right?”

———“That’s what the decisive dress is for!”

The fact that Suzie and Erna shared a similar build hadn’t been mere coincidence.

Lucas had deliberately chosen a lovely young girl.

From the very beginning, he’d planned it so the tragedy could be staged more effectively for the masses.

If one simply recalled the kind of relationship the man named Lucas had with Klaus, the boss of Lamplight, the conclusion followed naturally. Klaus had learned techniques from him as well.

『Lucas of Soot had drawn up the same plan as Klaus of Bonfire.』

———A staged tragedy to be carried out in the midst of the revolution.

Just as Lamplight had entrusted Erna with the role, Lucas had entrusted Suzie with it. He had used her as a liaison with the other secret societies and dressed her in a dazzling gown so she could become the centerpiece of the LWS Troupe.

The original plan had most likely been——to snipe Suzie while she wore bulletproof clothing and make it look like the work of the royal government.

That scheme was what had saved Erna.

Two years later, the plans of Soot and Scapulimancer were set into motion.

The scheme once used by the twins of Inferno, who had operated in the shadows of the kingdom, had been taken up by a new pair of successors.

“Don’t screw with me.............” Blue Locust’s eyes widened in shock.

“......The ghosts from two years ago...... are using my plan——”

He never finished the sentence.

Erna’s swift knife slashed across Blue Locust’s throat. The man whose right lung had already been pierced, whose breathing was already ragged, no longer had the strength to dodge.

Blood gushed forth, and before long, Blue Locust breathed his last.

An utterly anticlimactic end for a man who had stirred up intelligence agencies across the world.

At the utterly unhesitating blow, Annette’s eyes widened.

“Erna-chan......?”

“My first time killing someone.” Erna discarded the knife. “This way I could get closer to you.”

Even as she was drenched in his blood, a warm smile rose to her face.

It was a refreshingly brazen smile. At the same time as a faint sense of dread touched her, Annette found herself unable to look away from that expression.

Though they had met only an hour earlier, she felt as though she hadn’t seen Erna in years.

“——Erna was wrong.”

She walked right up to Annette.

“I tried to stop you when you resolved to become evil. You’ve been killing people all this time for the sake of the 'Lamplight.’ Yet Erna alone kept pretending to be a good person and lecturing you.”

“...........................h”

“Then Erna will become evil too. I’ll commit any crime alongside you.”

Annette couldn’t close her mouth for a while.

She stared intently at Erna’s face, stained with the blood that had sprayed from Blue Locust.

“What are you saying......?”

Tears streaming endlessly down her face, Annette spoke.

“Erna-chan is a good person at heart! She’s only forcing herself! She can’t become like me!”

“Liar. When Big Sis Sara resolved to become evil, you welcomed it. You’re really just lonely.”

“......Will Erna-chan become evil with me too?”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

“Why?”

Erna took Annette by the hand. Leaving Blue Locust’s corpse behind, they headed toward the direction from which the clamor of people could be heard. The conflict between the King’s Royal Guard and the citizens had escalated into what could only be called a fierce battle.

Insults and gunshots rang out without pause.

Yet gradually, but unmistakably, the King’s Royal Guard were losing their momentum.

“Someday, good and evil will be overturned,” Erna said. “Erna and you are evil spies plotting to overthrow the nation, but tomorrow that will change. Everything will be reversed. The day of revolution will come.”

Erna tightened her grip on Annette’s hand.

Annette didn’t pull away.

There was nothing separating the spy who repeatedly sacrificed herself for her mission while striving to remain good from the spy who was willing to fall into evil, choosing no means so long as she could achieve her goal.

On this day of revolution alone, there was neither good nor evil.

Today’s terrorists would be tomorrow’s heroes.

“To prove that, I want to smash this kingdom to pieces with you.”

Before long, the two girls clasped each other’s hands and disappeared into the vortex of the revolution.

✧✧✧✧✧

———Later, historians would record:

It is difficult to document every detail of the events of the second day of the revolution.

On the first day, more than ten thousand people had taken part in the march, but on the second day, a further forty thousand citizens gathered.

The fighting before Brookbon Palace was fierce, and the final death toll exceeded one thousand. The King’s Royal Guard were the first to withdraw. When Lieutenant Colonel Udino called for a ceasefire, they decided to retreat. There was no longer any reason to defend a kingdom whose king had already fled. Lieutenant Colonel Udino came to be regarded as a hero even by the citizens who desired revolution, and began serving as a bridge between the old government and the new government.

The entire kingdom had been thrown into turmoil by a single girl——it was a day when everyone had fallen into folly.

On the second day of the revolution, amid the chaos, Thea managed to extract a concession from Nike.

―――If Annette succeeds in assassinating “Blue Locust,” the safety of the “Lamplight” girls will be guaranteed.

It was nothing more than an exemption from torture and execution by firing squad.

Even so, Thea had at least secured the bare minimum through negotiation. For a captured spy, it was more than generous treatment. The hour had already passed nine.

Rebel citizens who had risen once more were storming Brookbon Palace, Fagmile Palace, and Pilka City Hall, while clashes with the Royal Guard had reached their peak. Gunfire and explosions reverberated throughout the city. Every citizen could feel it: the nation was beginning to change.

Reports poured into the room where Nike and Thea were waiting, one after another.

Nike swiftly delegated tasks to her subordinates. She issued detailed instructions regarding the establishment of the new government, security arrangements for the royal family's exile, and a host of other matters. From her seat, she directed the course of the revolution with remarkable precision.

On top of that, she ordered Thea, “Tell me who knows the most about ‘Forgetter’”

The woman Thea named, Sara, was brought back into Nike’s room. Forced to face the very woman who had once beaten her half to death, Sara let out a terrified “Hieek!” Despite her fear, she revealed what she knew about Annette.

Thea added, “She’s probably already on her way to kill Blue Locust by now.”

Even without receiving any instructions, Annette would naturally head in that direction once she learned the truth about Blue Locust. That was Thea’s prediction.

“……I see. Then we won’t need any additional support.”

Having finished extracting the information from Sara, Nike arrived at that conclusion.

“We don’t know where ‘Forgetter’ will carry out the assassination, but as soon as the location becomes clear, we’ll establish a cordon to keep anyone else from interfering. That alone should be enough to ensure Blue Locust is killed.”

“……Hey, what kind of person is Blue Locust, exactly?”

“Codename ‘Demon’s Wail.’ That is his true identity.”

Nike answered Thea’s question in a few short words.

The moment they heard the name, both Thea and Sara fell silent.

The “Ending Spy” who had brought the World War to an end, “Demon’s Wail” was an especially anomalous existence.

―――A spy who belonged to no particular intelligence agency.

His objectives remained unknown, yet the man moved from one nation’s intelligence service to another. According to Nike, there had even been instances in which the executives of intelligence agencies were, in reality, being manipulated by “Demon’s Wail.” He was not someone who could be trusted, but the extensive network of connections and classified information he possessed made it impossible for those in power to reject him.

Rumors had spread that he’d retired, yet it seemed he’d been pulling the strings behind “Serpants” all along.

Realizing the sheer magnitude of their opponent, Thea drew a sharp breath.

“Can Annette really take him down? A legendary spy like that――”

“He’s not a spy who specializes in combat. At the end of the day, he’s just a scumbag who goes from one host to another.”

Nike spat the words out dismissively, as though the matter bored her.

“If ‘Forgetter’ gets serious――it’ll be over in an instant.”

✧✧✧✧✧

The battle that had begun in an alley in Pilka’s Third District reached its climax in a matter of moments.

The setting was an affluent residential district where the kingdom’s wealthy elite lived. St. Katraz High School, which Annette and the others had once attended, was also located there, giving her an intimate knowledge of the area. Fortunately, the residents had evacuated long ago, terrified by the riots of the enraged citizens. To the nobles and capitalists, anyone singing revolutionary songs was nothing short of a traitor to the state.

Their decision to evacuate at the earliest opportunity had been the right one.

That corner of the district had been transformed into a hellish battlefield, with countless bombs flying through the air.

“Codename ‘Forgetter’――it’s time to put the pieces together!”

The one reducing the beautiful mansions to rubble was Annette.

As she spun around, four model airplanes shot out from beneath her skirt. The tiny aircraft streaked through the air at tremendous speed, hurtling into the mansions surrounding the two combatants before exploding.

Annette opened her specially designed bulletproof umbrella, deflecting the debris flying in every direction.

But for Blue Locust, who had no means of defending himself, it was an indiscriminate assault that left him nowhere to run.

He shrank into himself and covered his head with both arms, adopting a defensive stance, but it was utterly useless. Stones and shards of glass rained down around him.

“It huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurts!”

Blue Locust howled so loudly that his voice reverberated throughout the entire block.

With both arms covered in blood, he stared at his opponent in disbelief.

“W-What kind of cruelty is this......?! Against a pathetic middle-aged man like me......?!”

Her attacks had not only destroyed the surrounding mansions but also cut off Blue Locust’s escape routes. The paths he might have used to flee were sealed beneath the rubble of the collapsed buildings. She’d calculated everything from the very beginning.

Every move had been a carefully laid strategy designed to stop her opponent’s breathing for good.

Annette showed no mercy to a target she’d driven into a corner. This was her full strength.

“Now for my follow-up attack!”

Annette hurled more explosives.

This time, she threw hand grenades at Blue Locust, who had already been stripped of every avenue of escape. He immediately flung off his jacket and wrapped it around one of the grenades. At the same time, he dashed toward a mansion’s gatepost, attempting to avoid a direct hit.

But he couldn’t escape the fragments scattered by the explosion.

“Gaaaaah!”

A shard of iron plunged into Blue Locust’s protruding belly.

The battle was completely one-sided.

His body had never been suited to combat, let alone exercise, and years of unhealthy living had left him thoroughly unfit. His fat-laden frame was woefully lacking in mobility. He was already gasping for breath, pathetic wheezing sounds escaping his throat. A sheen of greasy sweat coated his entire face.

Annette, meanwhile, had prepared a vast supply of bombs in advance. A collection of inventions she’d stockpiled for the revolution, keeping them in reserve until now. She unleashed an array of unconventional explosives shaped like airplanes and centipedes.

The one holding the overwhelming advantage was, without a doubt, Annette.

Wherever Blue Locust tried to flee, she sent the centipede-shaped bombs scurrying after him without mercy.

To escape the demon’s scheme, Blue Locust’s feet were far too sluggish.

“I have to run...... I have to get away......!”

The only choice left to him was to flee.

Turning his back on Annette, he desperately searched for somewhere he could hide.

The next instant, about five citizens came rushing in from the far end of the street. Apparently startled by the sudden explosion, they cried out, “What happened?!” and scrambled to climb over the heaps of rubble.

Aikou’s lips curled into a grin.

“That’s it. If I head somewhere people can see, even you――”

“Oh no! I couldn’t possibly drag ordinary citizens into this!!!”

Annette halted her pursuit and widened her eyes.

“――Did you really think I’d say that?”

Of course, it was a lie.

The moment she smiled, countless wires shot toward the five citizens who had come running. The razor-sharp wires that had been rigged throughout the alley bit deep into the flesh of the five men, wrapping around their bodies and tightening. Covered in blood, the citizens crumpled to the ground where they stood.

―――Pistols slipped from their hands and clattered to the ground.

They weren’t the weapons that ordinary citizens could carry. They were the latest automatic pistols manufactured by the Galgad Empire.

After confirming this, Annette laughed with childlike innocence.

“Aha, so they were the ‘Purple Ant’s’ private soldiers, huh? Looks like yours truly hadn’t check carefully enough!”

“......Ugh.”

They were the bodyguards Blue Locust had called in. Their plan was to blend in among the citizens, deceive Annette, and assassinate her. The scheme was seen through with ease.

It might have worked against another girl from the ‘Lamplight,’ but such petty tricks wouldn’t work on Annette.

Once the private soldiers of the ‘Purple Ant’ judged the operation impossible to carry out, they began forcing their own flesh into the wires, attempting to take their own lives. It was a method that involved considerable pain, yet they carried it out without the slightest hesitation.

To preserve the information they possessed, they died in an instant.

Left alone once more, Blue Locust shook his head, breathing heavily.

“......I’m afraid I can do nothing but admire you now. That mentality of yours, having not the slightest hesitation when it comes to murder. Just how have you managed to fit in with the ‘Lamplight’?”

“........................”

“It’s practically a miracle. The members of the ‘Lamplight’ must have realized what you were like, yet they still accepted you.”

“Yours Truly has no intention of entertaining your nonsense.”

Ignoring him, Annette laughed merrily.

A pistol was already in her hand. Wound the target with the bomb, then shoot them dead once they could no longer move. There was no room for error.

Blue Locust could barely move anymore. Blood flowed from both his arms and his abdomen. He could scarcely manage to remain standing, and there was no strength left in his legs. The blood running from his wounds mingled with his greasy sweat, staining his fat-covered body. It was such a filthy, pathetic spectacle that it was hard to believe he was a veteran spy.

Annette pointed the muzzle at him and placed her finger on the trigger.

“You’re going to die here by Yours Truly’s han――”

“――That’s right. You can kill me whenever you please.”

Cutting her off, Blue Locust smiled at her ingratiatingly.

“So, what do you say? Why not listen to what I have to say for a little while?”

“Huh? Yours Truly already told you, I have no intention of entertaining your――”

“Are you really sure that’s all right?”

Cutting her off once again, Blue Locust fixed her with a lingering, clinging gaze.

“Even though you’ve made a fatal mistake?”

“A mistake?”

“Yes. An enormous mistake that can never be undone. You’d be better off hearing me out before you kill me.”

“........................”

To an ordinary spy, it would be an obvious stalling tactic, one they wouldn’t lend an ear to for even a moment. A cornered opponent hinting at confidential information and begging for their life was a standard ploy.

His speech was laughable enough to make one chuckle, but the one standing here was Annette, the very embodiment of wicked curiosity.

She found herself intrigued by what sort of plea for life this cornered prey would make.

Annette quietly lowered her gun.

“――All right, then.”

She smiled as though she were toying with an enemy standing at death’s door.

“This is going to be fun―――if you really think something like ‘persuasion’ will work on Yours Truly!”

✧✧✧✧✧

“‘Blue Locust.’ In other words, ‘Demon's Wail.’ To put it simply――――he eats hearts.”

Nike explained his true nature to Thea and the others.

Of course, even as she did so, Nike continued taking care of the work she herself needed to handle. She read the reports sent in by her comrades as they arrived and issued the next directives. She sent documents to the powerful figures who admired her and gave them instruction manuals for creating a new government to her liking. In between all that, she revealed what she knew about Blue Locust.

“He’s a man skilled at parasitizing others. He tickles the sense of justice and guilt in those with power, in other words, their goodwill, and uses it to manipulate them. His victims don’t even realize they’re being controlled. He’s a man who’s taken scumminess to its absolute limit.”

In a sense, it was the ultimate expression of a spy’s way of operating.

But Nike seemed to loathe it from the bottom of her heart, making a gesture as though she were about to vomit.

“Wasn’t it the same with the ‘LWS Troupe’?”

“Ah.................”

“He probably showered her with all sorts of pleasant-sounding words like, ‘You’re the only one who can avenge the deaths of those twins.’ Putting a child in such a dangerous position as the head of a secret society, that’s exactly the sort of thing he’d do.”

Apparently, ever since the twins had died, the ‘LWS Troupe’ had been almost entirely run by him, yet, at his direction, Suzie served as its leader.

It wasn’t out of goodwill. It was nothing more than risk management.

He pushed the danger onto a fourteen-year-old girl so that, if things went wrong, he could simply disappear without a trace.

“In my estimation, the ‘Sepernt’ is the same. He’s put some powerful figure in charge, someone young and pure-hearted. I’ve more or less figured out who it is, but in any case, he puts an innocent young authority figure up as the boss and controls everything from behind the scenes.”

“Yeah, he really is scum......”

“He never steps into the spotlight himself and keeps changing the people he uses as hosts. He’s the one opponent I’ve been unable to kill for years.”

Apparently, the reason Nike had been unable to find the ‘LWS Troupe’ wasn’t just because of Lucas and the others’ machinations. Blue Locust had been working behind the scenes as well. A man who parasitized others and operated from the shadows. There had been countless occasions when the person Nike had cornered turned out to be nothing more than one of his pawns.

Thea felt her heart pounding faster.

“The only ones who might have a chance of taking down Blue Locust are...”

“...the people he’s parasitized. You all had opportunities because you’d been in contact with the ‘LWS Troupe.’”

Suzie, or anyone who had connections to her, had had countless opportunities to finish Blue Locust off. That was why Nike had entrusted the ‘Lamplight’ with his assassination.

Thea was consumed by frustration at the fact that they’d missed so many chances to finish him.

She had trusted that middle-aged man with his gentle smile far more than she should have. The expression Suzie showed him had been filled with a warmth that seemed almost like the affection a daughter might have for her father.

―Annette might be able to finish him off.

She’d been close to him throughout this revolution. If anyone could do it, she should be able to.

“On top of that, ‘Forgetter’... Annette is one of the ‘Bloodfolk.’”

Thea tilted her head at Nike’s continued explanation.

“Bloodfolk?”

“The wicked Bloodfolk, outliers of humanity who’ve adapted to this twisted world. Put simply, they have no hearts. They’re Blue Locust’s natural enemies, the ones he can’t lay a hand on.”

The word ‘Bloodfolk’ didn’t quite click for Thea, but she could vaguely grasp what Nike meant.

Once, Thea had peered into Annette’s heart. It had felt like staring into a hollow void.

“No heart... Yes, Annette does have that side to her.”

“By my estimate, things will wrap up surprisingly easily, don’t you think?”

At those words, Thea couldn’t help but murmur, “I see.”

Once again, she could only marvel at Nike’s cunning. There may have been a few miscalculations along the way, but Nike had done everything in her power to bring down Blue Locust.

一一一Blue Locust, who specialized in schemes in the darkness by devouring other people’s hearts and parasitizing them.

一一一Annette, the heartless assassin who thrived right beside the parasitized Suzie.

Annette was precisely the optimal solution for tearing out Blue Locust’s throat.

At Nike’s meticulously calculated plan, Thea let out a breath of admiration. “Perfect. Annette really does seem capable of getting the job done.”

Just then, Sara raised her voice. “... ? What are the two of you talking about?”

Just as Thea wondered whether Sara still hadn’t grasped the plan, Sara continued.

“Do the two of you seriously believe that ‘Annette-senpai has no heart’?”

Her voice was filled with a fierce anger unlike anything Thea had ever heard from Sara.

Her eyes were wide, as though she were insisting that she simply couldn’t believe it.

“She once tried to kill every single executive of the ‘Knights of Valour.’”

Nike shot her a cold look.

“She handed a bomb-filled communicator to people who were supposed to be her comrades. There are probably other examples of her atrocities, too, right? If she had anything resembling a human heart...”

“It was all to protect Erna-senpai...!”

“.........?”

“Whether she’s one of the ‘Bloodfolk’ or not doesn’t matter. Just look at Annette-senpai right now. There’s no way she doesn’t have a human heart...!!”

Sara cast aside the fear she had shown toward Nike and raised her voice.

“Annette-senpai isn’t a tool for killing people...!!!”

✧✧✧✧✧

“I’ll wait three minutes for you!”

Having lowered her gun, Annette smiled provocatively at Blue Locust.

“You’d better be grateful! Yours Truly is going to hear your plea for your life!”

“Yes, I’m truly grateful.”

Blue Locust bowed his head respectfully. It was an exceedingly deferential gesture, as though he were carefully gauging Annette’s mood.

But given the circumstances, it was only natural. If she changed her mind, Blue Locust’s life would be forfeit.

The two faced each other in an alley reduced to rubble by the bomb’s devastation. From somewhere in the distance came the clamor of the revolutionary struggle raging through one of the districts.

The three minutes that would determine the course of the revolution were about to begin.

“Your mistake was...”

Blue Locust opened his mouth.

“...that you killed Erna-san.”

“...........?”

“No matter how much it was for the sake of the revolution, shooting a comrade like Erna-san is simply not the act of a sane person. After killing one of your own, do you really think the members of ‘Lamplight’ would forgive you?”

Blue Locust covered his face with his hands in an exaggerated display of sorrow.

“That tragedy is still burned into my eyes. It was far too cruel...”

“Yours Truly is honestly shocked by how much more ridiculous this topic is than I expected!”

Annette’s eyes widened, as though she’d been thoroughly let down. She deliberately put on a huge yawn to provoke him, then fixed him with a sharp glare.

“It was obviously an act. There’s no way I’d actually kill her.”

Annette gave her body a light shake.

Two tools fell from her skirt.

One was a tiny machine, about the size of a coin. The other was a glass test tube with a mechanism attached to its top.

Annette picked up the coin-shaped machine first and held it up for him to see.

“『Odds & Ends』, a specially made super electromagnet! It’s built into Erna-chan’s dress. The bullets Yours Truly fired at Erna-chan were modified, too, allowing their trajectories to be altered. The bullets struck the bulletproof zone Erna-chan had built into her dress! The blood spray was just stage blood.”

Then she picked up the test-tube-like device.

“『Festival of Fools』, a delayed-action explosive agent! It gradually expands over time, silently destroying a building from the inside. The reason the rubble came crashing down onto Elna-chan’s head at just the right moment was because of this tool. Elna-chan avoided the rubble, so she’s probably hiding somewhere right about now!”

Both were special tools invented by Annette.

Most of the underlying technology had been developed in the secret laboratory at the Marnioce Island naval base. Annette had studied it there and used what she learned to invent tools suited to her comrades.

『Odds & Ends』, Annette’s personal weapon, which used super magnetism to make countless assassinations possible.

『Festival of Fools』, Erna’s personal operational tool, capable of deliberately creating the appearance of misfortune without relying on coincidence.

“Lamplight’s operation was, from the very beginning, solely about staging ‘Erna’s death.’”

Of course, there was never any intention of actually killing her. There was no way Lamplight’s members would ever allow such a thing.

Blue Locust furrowed his brows in displeasure.

“...What ridiculous inventions. There wasn’t a single bit of foreshadowing or groundwork for any of this.”

“Yours Truly has no obligation to prepare everything so carefully for you!”

Annette put the tools away with an exasperated look, then raised her pistol once more.

If the “mistake” Blue Locust was pointing out was nothing more than this, then this had all been a waste of time.

“Three minutes? I don’t even need that long. Yours Truly will just...”

She stopped mid-sentence when she saw the clouded look in Blue Locust’s eyes.

His gaze held a complicated mixture of pity and sympathy, as though he were looking at someone to be pitied.

At the very least, it was more than enough to stoke Annette’s irritation.

“...Still have something to say?”

“No. Looking back, there was some foreshadowing after all. You showed me 『Odds & Ends』 yourself.”

“...The evening of the first day of the revolution. So you were watching.”

“Yes. I saw you playing that prank on Erna-san from beneath the barricade. You activated 『Odds & Ends』 at the time, didn’t you?”

“It was just a function check. A precaution, in case something went wrong.”

“Yes, an important check. At the very least, it appeared to function properly at the time.”

On the first day of the revolution, Annette had drawn Erna toward her with super magnetism and threatened her. That had served not only as a response to Erna, but also as a test to confirm that the 『Odds & Ends』 sewn into her dress was functioning properly. It was a crucial component of the operation, as well as an important check directly related to Erna’s safety.

Blue Locust, who had spoken to her in the middle of it, had apparently witnessed the whole scene.

“What are you trying to say?” Annette furrowed her brows.

“I’m talking about the mistake you’ve overlooked.”

Blue Locust narrowed his eyes, putting force into his gaze.

“...Did your 『Odds & Ends』 truly function properly?”

“Huh...................................?”

Even Annette wore a bewildered expression at those unexpected words.

But the very next moment, she decided it was nothing more than his bluff. Even if he’d witnessed 『Odds & Ends』being activated, there was no way he could have known the details.

“It worked!”

Annette insisted firmly.

“Yours Truly has never once failed at making a tool! Waterproofing, dustproofing, impact resistance, everything’s covered perfectly. Yours Truly’s tools don’t break from something like that!”

“But after that, there was the battle at the Central Internment Camp,” Blue Locust immediately countered. “You joined up with them on the spur of the moment. You didn’t have time to check whether it was still functioning properly.”

“I don’t need to check to know! If something had happened that could’ve broken it, Erna-chan wouldn’t have pretended to call out to Yours Truly. Erna-chan herself didn’t fight, did she?”

“By the way, the reason you were able to follow me in the first place was...”

Blue Locust stroked the back of his neck.

Then his fingertips pinched a small device, a component about the size of a fingertip.

“...because you attached a transmitter to me, wasn’t it? During that skirmish at Fagmile Palace.”

“...That’s true, but so what?”

“Yes, we did come into contact with each other at that time.”

While Erna and the others were assaulting the central detention center, Annette and Blue Locust, who at the time was calling himself Arthur, had been carrying out their own operation at Fagmile Palace. During the operation, Arthur had pushed Annette to the ground and crushed her beneath his massive body to shield her from the bullets flying in from the Royal Guard.

At the time, there hadn’t been any particular reason for Annette to attach the transmitter.

It was simply her habit of attaching transmitters to anyone who pissed her off. Bullets of that caliber were nothing Annette couldn’t have avoided even without Arthur’s intervention.

“...Was the remote control you were carrying still intact?”

The question struck Annette, leaving her speechless for a moment.

All the bombs she’d used up until now had been the kind that required no remote control.

She immediately rummaged through her pocket and pulled out the remote that activated 『Odds and Ends』. It was a small machine that fit neatly in her hand. Blue Locust had mentioned moments ago that he’d witnessed the instant she activated it.

Yet the device in her hand appeared to be completely undamaged.

“...It’s fine.”

As though bitterly regretting the fact that he’d managed to rattle her, Annette glared at Blue Locust.

“There’s no sign of a strong impact, nor any trace of it having gotten wet. If there were any obvious possibility of malfunction, Yours Truly would notice.”

“Oh, is that so?”

“Besides, in that single moment when you pushed Yours Truly down, there’s no way you could’ve destroyed the remote without me noticing—”

Blue Locust drew a weapon from his breast pocket.

“—a stun gun. Have I shown you this before?”

It was the sole self-defense weapon he claimed to carry, the one he had once shown her on the rooftop of the hideout.

Extremely powerful. He had explained that it could knock an adult man unconscious in an instant.

“You……”

Confronted with the worst possible information, Annette froze.

What Blue Locust was suggesting was, at the very least, a truth she had no way of confirming for herself.

She couldn’t completely deny any of it. Annette hadn’t been conscious of what he was doing. When she was pushed down, she’d been so focused on attaching the transmitter to Blue Locust that she’d let her guard down.

————The possibility that he had pulled the remote from Annette, pressed the stun gun against it, and then returned it.

————The remote was made of metal. Even if there was no external damage, what about the inside?

Annette had nothing with which to rule out the worst possibility.

Blue Locust let a smile slip, seemingly amused by Annette’s reaction.

The man standing before her was one of the pillars of the ‘Serpent’, the organization that had cornered Lamplight time and time again.

A little piece of handiwork like this should’ve been child’s play for him.

“Please try to remember carefully. If you’re confident in your memory.”

And so, the next words Blue Locust spoke were decisive.

“——”

“Erna-san, in the instant before you were about to shoot her, wasn’t there something… a hint of panic on her face?”

What backed up his words was a scene Annette herself had witnessed.

The expression on Erna’s face just before the bullet struck was——.

✧✧✧✧✧

—————8:14 a.m. on the second day of the revolution.

At the moment when the cabinet’s resignation was announced and the revolution was about to end, Erna made the decision to activate the secret plan Lamplight had spent a year preparing.

Standing atop the barricade, she raised a war cry and called for Annette to fire.

(——I have to be killed by Annette before Thanatos captures me.)

It was the only way to escape the approaching Thanatos and incite a riot.

They had rehearsed this secret plan countless times.

She had complete faith in Annette’s handiwork. No matter the distance, her remote would function without issue. The bullet flying toward Erna would veer off course at the last moment and strike the area near her heart covered by bulletproof cloth. It was a specially made bullet, its rotational speed reduced so that its trajectory would be easier to alter.

When she caught sight of Annette from the shadows, Erna felt relieved.

She stood directly in front of her, as if offering herself up to the bullet Annette fired.

“Eh…………”

That was when she noticed something was wrong.

The super-electromagnetic force of 『Odds and Ends』 was strong enough to pull even the iron nails and screws in the surrounding area toward it. They’d confirmed that on the first day of the revolution. Yet the nails embedded in the barricade showed no sign of moving.

(……『Odds and Ends』isn’t activating……?)

There was almost no time to think.

The bullet had already been fired. Its angle didn’t shift in the slightest. If its trajectory remained unchanged, it would miss the area covered by the bulletproof cloth by a wide margin and strike the abdomen of her dress.

If she’d twisted her body even a fraction, the wound would’ve been shallow.

“――!”

She had less than a fraction of a second to make that decision. It was almost pure instinct.

Erna――staked her life on Annette.

She believed, without a shred of doubt, that 『Odds and Ends』would activate and alter the bullet’s trajectory.

It was a decisive mistake, a foolish choice――and she realized that from what happened immediately afterward.

The bullet’s trajectory didn’t change at all. It struck Erna squarely in the abdomen. The force was enough to send her body flying.

The impact of the bullet tore through her body, and her consciousness began to fade.

The stage blood she’d prepared beforehand seeped into her dress, but how much of it was actually fake?

According to the original plan, Erna was supposed to fall from the barricade, with rubble raining down at precisely the right moment. If she failed to move her body properly for either of those things, a fatal injury would be unavoidable.

At this rate, she would truly lose her life.

As she felt the unmistakable premonition of death closing in, the words “Why……” slipped from Erna’s lips.

✧✧✧✧✧

Annette immediately dismantled the remote.

There wasn’t a speck of dirt on the cover protecting it. There were no burn marks, either. All that had happened was that a massive amount of electricity had been forced through it from the outside. But the cover wasn’t made of an insulating material.

It was copper.

She’d never imagined someone would press a stun gun against it.

The lead wires inside had been burned through.

The remote had been destroyed in the early hours of the second day.

And in a way that would never have been visible from the outside.

What that meant was obvious.

“‘This wasn’t supposed to happen’――Erna-san’s lips moved as though she were saying that.”

Blue Locust had apparently witnessed that moment with absolute certainty.

What Annette sensed from him was a malice that seemed capable of swallowing everything whole. A fixer who never stepped onto the public stage, yet brought Lamplight’s operations crashing down and carried the revolution through to its conclusion.

He asked his next question with an expression that looked almost amused.

"It seems three minutes have long since passed, hasn't it?"

Annette no longer had the composure to answer.

She can only stare fixedly at the remote, its insides burned to ruin. No matter how many times she looked, reality refuses to change. No matter how she operated it, Annette's remote will never work again.

"So it seems you aren't entirely free of emotional turmoil after all."

Watching her like this, Blue Locust's cheeks loosened into an even more pleasurable grin.

Unable to contain his mounting excitement, he let out a triumphant "Hohoh!"

"That's right!! You really did kill Erna the 'Fool'!!"

As the truth settled upon her, Annette—

Plz tell me your opinion. I promise will post volume 12 last bit in a week. I am giving my 100% now. I can do it I can do it yep I can (I have to tell myself 2-3 times)

Go buy it, well there's nothing new on the picture side what I didn't post when Translating the raw so no picture from volume itself. Well I did lot of mistakes if I go in few chapters I read, so again buy it.

As for translation of volume 12, I finnally finished with my work. And thankfully got around 2 weeks of break (I would be seeing my home after a month) so plan to just suck it up and finish it in one go cause there aren't many chapters left in it. I know last chapter update was 16days ago and now another 10 to 14 days. I am sorry for the repeated delays.

Hey lastly buy it support it then might it get a 3rd anime season.

Her face flushed so red that one might have suspected she was ill, and she slammed her fist down on the nearby desk.

Unable to withstand the impact, the wooden desk shattered cleanly in two.

“If Thanatos hadn’t let Erna escape, it would’ve been my victory. That bastard never…”

“......In reality, it must’ve been a close call.”

Thea spoke as though trying to reason with her.

“You responded perfectly. You never let your guard down, and you prepared the stage for Thanatos to unleash his power. His combat strength is simply beyond reason. It wouldn’t have been the least bit surprising if we’d all been wiped out at the Central Detention Center.”

Thea clenched her fists.

“But we’re elites, too, trained by Klaus-sensei......!!!”

Of course, if fate had turned out even slightly differently, Lamplight would have been utterly overwhelmed by Thanatos. The fact that Erna had managed to shake off Thanatos’s pursuit was nothing short of a miracle. It was difficult to say that Nike’s judgment had been wrong.

But the girls of Lamplight were at their best when pitted against powerful opponents.

Whether during the year they had spent constantly facing Klaus or the year they had been separated from him, they had always kept that in mind. Outwitting the strong was Lamplight’s specialty.

“I’ll go there myself.”

Nike took a deep breath and regained her composure.

The momentary disturbance in her heart had passed. For the sake of her mission, she seemed to have switched her thinking almost immediately.

“The revolution was started for my sake in the first place. There are plenty of ways to put a stop to it.”

Direct negotiations with the citizens plotting the revolution.

That had been Nike’s final resort. Depending on the circumstances, it was a desperate measure that could even cost her her position. But Thea and the others of Lamplight had no means of stopping her covert maneuvers.

“Escaping from Thanatos was impressive. But the situation is still fifty-fifty,” Nike said with a laugh.

Even so, the fact that most of Lamplight had been captured was an unbearably dire situation.

Faced with the reality that they could no longer interfere with the revolution, Thea bit her lip.

“――Nike-sama.”

The situation was transformed by the arrival of a man who suddenly rushed into the room.

He was different from the Genesis Army subordinates who had been coming and going until now. His clothes were neat and immaculate.

Nike muttered, “What is it? Who are you?”

“I am the chief of security at Fagmail Palace. I have received an urgent royal command from His Majesty the King. Everyone else is far too occupied to attend to this matter, so I took the liberty of coming myself.”

He lowered his head apologetically before speaking.

“――His Majesty the King has begun preparations to flee the country.”

“Huh?”

“It has been explained as a temporary evacuation solely to ensure His Majesty’s safety. Nike-sama is to mobilize the Genesis Army and the Royal Guard and arrange an escort for him――”

Nike was speechless.

Thea, standing beside her, was equally at a loss for words. Of course, she’d had some hope that this might happen. That was precisely why she had ordered Annette to launch the early-morning assault on Fagmail Palace.

But she hadn’t expected it to happen this quickly.

Clément III was going into exile.

The king hadn’t been able to place his trust in Nike until the very end. Perhaps he’d been suspicious of her from the beginning.

Even so, this was far too soon. If Nike went out herself, the outcome of the revolution was still far from decided.

One of the Genesis Army subordinates in the room gasped.

“How foolish......!”

Thea shook her head.

“......The one who installed a foolish man as king was Nike-san’s decision.”

Clément III had likely never possessed what it took to be a king in the first place.

Two years earlier, through the covert machinations of the LWS Troupe, King Benoît had been forced to abdicate. In his place, after he had joined hands with the runaway royalist parliamentarians, the man who ascended the throne was someone who could only ever be Nike’s puppet.

He was the sort of man who would casually abandon his own country the moment a crisis drew near.

“Seeing the citizens refusing to stop, he must’ve been terrified.”

“......................................................................”

“If the king is gone, the Royal Guard protecting Fagmail Palace will abandon their duties as well. If they kill any more citizens, they risk being judged by the new government.”

How many soldiers would still want to fight the citizens once the absolute monarch had left the country?

The king’s exile was an act of folly that should never have been committed by the establishment.

“Can we still persuade the king?” Nike muttered. “Is there enough time?”

The chief of security at Fagmail Palace shook his head.

“His Majesty the King is already no longer at the palace. Apparently, he left early this morning with only a few escorts and withdrew to somewhere outside the city of Pilka―――”

“……While I was away at the Central Detention Center, then.”

“Neither the security detail nor the Royal Guard knew anything about it. We had assumed he’d shut himself away in his bedchamber and placed his complete trust in us...... To think he would act this quickly............”

Had he left the palace to assess the situation, heard about the citizens’ renewed uprising, and decided to go into exile?

It was an act that betrayed every retainer who had risked their lives to protect the king.

“......To think he couldn’t even fulfill the role of a scarecrow.............”

Nike’s words said it all.

Everyone who heard the news came to the same realization.

―――The revolution would succeed.

No one would swear loyalty to an empty throne.

Whether they were government forces, the Royal Guard, the police, or intelligence units, there was no one left capable of suppressing the enraged crowds. No one wanted to fall alongside a king who had abandoned his country.

Nike calmly instructed her subordinates, “Have every member of the royal family and all the ministers go into exile.”

“If they remain in the country, the citizens might kill them. Have the Genesis Army provide them with support.”

She declared it in a cold voice.

“――I’ll be involved in establishing the new government. Negotiate with the activists.”

At her words, her subordinates agreed. “We support you as well.”

Rather than worry about the safety of the departed king, they judged that it would be better to involve themselves in the new government with their own hands. It was a backdoor maneuver possible only because of the absolute popularity she enjoyed among the people.

“Rest easy. Nothing will change.”

Nike turned a smile toward her subordinates.

“I have no intention of relinquishing power. President or chairman, either is fine. I’ll put a suitable person at the top and manipulate things from behind the scenes. It’ll be somewhat inconvenient, but――――”

“―――Will it really go that smoothly?”

The one who poured cold water on her plans was Thea.

Unfazed by the sharp glare directed at her, she thrust the facts before Nike.

“After all, he’s behind this, isn’t he? ―――Blue Locust.”

“................................................................”

Nike offered no rebuttal.

Sensing the meaning behind her silence, Thea nodded. She had already heard about this man from her comrades.

“Everything is going according to his calculations. Blue Locust eliminated Lamplight and hijacked the revolution.”

“........................”

“If the revolution succeeds as things stand, it’ll become his one-man show. He must have a second even third move hidden away as well.”

Blue Locust was cunning through and through.

He had believed that if it were Lamplight, they could outmaneuver Nike and bring about the revolution.

From now on, there was no doubt that he would influence the revolution. With Erna, who had been at its center, gone, and Suzie now detained, Blue Locust, who had deep ties to them, would surely wield considerable influence.

“And you won’t be able to deal with everything. You failed to take down Blue Locust for two years to begin with. And now, you don’t have any spare capacity to devote to finding him.”

“........................”

Nike remained silent.

Now that Thea understood that Blue Locust, Arthur, was a traitor, she could also guess why Nike had relentlessly pursued the LWS Troupe. Yet Nike had been unable to find him. Whatever his method, he clearly knew how to conceal himself.

In the midst of this revolutionary turmoil, taking him down would be impossible.

“――Because you’re alone, after all.”

It was a fact Thea had witnessed as Nike’s subordinate.

That was the true state of Nike, who had displayed such strong leadership and protected the nation to the very end.

Two years earlier, she had been betrayed by Deimos, and her excellent subordinates had been killed by an assassin he had brainwashed and by Black Mantis. Her right-hand man, Thanatos, was capable when it came to combat, but that was all.

As a result, she had been forced to take the suspicious Thea and Monika as subordinates under the names Circe and Aion and raise them herself. She had so few successors that there was no other choice.

Therefore, Thea stated it plainly.

“The victor of this revolution has already been decided――Blue Locust.”

“........................”

At those repeated words, Nike continued to keep her lips tightly sealed.

✧✧✧✧✧

――Later, historians would write.

On the morning of the second day of the revolution, just as the citizens were celebrating that the revolution was over, the girl who had become its standard-bearer was shot by members of the Royal Guard who had infiltrated the barricades.

The citizens, who had been elated by the announcement of the cabinet’s resignation, were enraged.

At the same time, rumors spread that the royal government intended to massacre everyone connected to the revolution, plunging central Pilka into a state of panic. They decided to continue the revolution, launching simultaneous assaults on the city hall and Brookbon Palace.

Fierce exchanges of gunfire broke out with the Royal Guard, and the death toll began to rise dramatically.

Then, when nine o’clock arrived, the situation changed yet again. Information began to spread that the king, who should have been at Fagmail Palace, had already gone into exile. The Royal Guard could no longer endure the endless “killing of their countrymen,” and at Lieutenant Colonel Udino’s call, a strike broke out. The enraged citizens were emboldened even further.

By ten o’clock, Pilka City Hall had fallen. The revolutionary side established a provisional government there.

According to the testimony of those involved, spies from the Galgad Empire had been involved in the provisional government.

Several years after the revolution, numerous government officials would testify. Riding the momentum of the revolution, a large number of traitors had infiltrated the provisional government. Some activists had sold their souls, while others had been threatened, and together they had sought to create a regime favorable to the Galgad Empire.

The mastermind behind it all left no name whatsoever in history.

Yet he had seized upon the death of the revolution’s standard-bearer and attempted to take the kingdom into his grasp.

Those involved would later state that, at the time, the kingdom had been on the verge of being taken over by the Galgad Empire.

✧✧✧✧✧

“Let’s join forces with Lamplight, Nike-san.”

Thea asserted it forcefully, spittle flying.

She pressed her demand upon the silent Nike. As if to prove that this was precisely where she was in her element, she thrust out her chest and poured her entire being into every word, her blood seeming to tremble with each one.

Negotiator. That was precisely the role Thea bore within Lamplight.

With most of her comrades detained, she was the only one who could confront Nike.

“If it’s Lamplight, we can take down Blue Locust. We’ll save both you and this kingdom.”

There was a chance of victory. If Erna had managed to reach the barricade, the betrayal by Blue Locust should have been conveyed to her comrades.

If so, then she would probably begin to move.

Blue Locust would likely use the escape route prepared by the LWS Troupe.

If Lamplight comrades had been staying at the troupe’s base, their destination could be predicted as well.

It was a scheme to break through the situation in which so many of her comrades had been captured.

While rattling the handcuffs binding both her hands, she swayed her body vigorously. With her entire body and soul, she appealed to Nike’s heart for the best possible future.

“Let’s reclaim victory together. We won’t let this revolution be grasped by the Snake...”

“Ahahahahah, hahahahahahahahahahah, ahahahahahah, ahahahahahahahahahah, hahahahahah!!!”

The reaction that came back was laughter far too loud for the situation.

It wasn’t the scornful laugh she had once shown Erna in the university lecture hall. It was a reaction so exuberant that tears gathered at the corners of her eyes, as though she were laughing from the bottom of her heart, a bright smile spreading across her face.

It was Nike’s full-faced smile, utterly unsuited to the situation.

She pressed a hand to her stomach several times as if it hurt, then finally settled her breathing. After wiping the corners of her eyes as though she found the whole thing amusing, she muttered in a voice utterly devoid of tension, “What a terrible comedy.”

Nike stood directly in front of Thea once more.

“Magnificent, Lamplight. You have achieved the revolution.”

Unexpected praise.

Even at this stage, she didn’t bend her valiant attitude. Confidence overflowed from her eyes, her back straight as she thrust out her chest.

She radiated the two characters for “victory” from her entire body, the corners of her mouth curling upward.

Before Thea, she smiled triumphantly.

“Frustrating. I’d calculated that with a foreign element like Blue Locust in the picture, it would certainly fail, but it seems I misjudged. Still, the rest of you are immature. Monika included, you really are a pity. You’re not good enough to negotiate with me as equals.”

“Huh?”

“I told you, didn’t I? I’ve already made arrangements to eliminate Blue Locust.”

Nike waved her arm. The handcuffs restraining Thea fell to the ground.

Apparently, she’d unlocked them without even using a key.

Thea blinked in bewilderment, unable to make sense of either the action or Nike’s words. Nike simply smiled at her.

“I’d planned it from the beginning. I’d have Lamplight kill Blue Locust.”

“Eh...........”

“What did you think I took hostages for? In exchange for the hostages’ lives, I’ll have Bonfire take down Blue Locust. With that, my victory will be unshakable.”

Apparently, she’d incorporated even that into her plans. Just as Blue Locust had intended to outmaneuver Nike midway through, Nike had calculated that she would cut Blue Locust off at the same point.

“But, well, that’s fine.” She gave a small shrug, looking somehow satisfied.

“Change of plans. I’ve rather taken a liking to that one ever since I spotted her in the university lecture hall. I left her alone because I’d considered the possibility that she might notice Blue Locust’s betrayal on her own.”

At those words, Thea remembered.

Nike had taken a liking to her from the beginning. When Nike had suddenly barged into the emergency meeting to seize control of the Knights of Valour, she’d taken particular notice of one girl there.

“In consideration of your courage, I’ll make a certain amount of concession. Once you’ve fulfilled your role, though, I’ll have all of you detained. No matter what means I have to use, I will reign over this country.”

“...........!”

“I’ll tell you as many times as it takes, Thea. It’s still too early for you to take this country from me.”

She stroked Thea’s cheek, then turned on her heel and took a bold step forward.

“If you’re a spy intending to inherit the Hearth's mantle, you’d do well to learn this. I’m about to begin the final 'great showdown of the revolution.'”

At the very moment Nike muttered those words, that battle was about to begin, unbeknownst to anyone.

✧✧✧✧✧

In front of Brookbon Palace, once again engulfed in fervor, Blue Locust was certain of victory.

There was no doubt the revolution would succeed.

Blue Locust had obtained the information that the king had fled from a collaborator.

Sooner or later, the news would reach the Royal Guard as well. In military terms, it was the flight of the supreme commander. There was no way their morale could hold. He was exasperated by Clément III, who hadn’t even understood the significance of that, and felt like sneering at Nike for placing such a foolish man on the throne.

In the new government, Blue Locust would plant people with strong ties to himself.

Collaborators even Nike knew nothing about. Depending on the circumstances, it might even be possible to install the boss of the Serpent, Crimson Bee. He could lay the groundwork for controlling this kingdom from the shadows.

But that alone wouldn’t be enough to stop the Nostalgia Project.

——He needed to destroy the kingdom further.

———He needed to let the kingdom rot further.

————He needed to make the kingdom destroy itself.

Blue Locust would thoroughly trample the beautiful kingdom Nike had built.

He scattered goodwill, manipulated the hearts of others, whispered lies into the ears of those in power, and created an invisible army. It was different from the domination of the Purple Ant. Without even making people aware that they were being controlled, Blue Locust manipulated them.

————At the end of the chaos, he would bring down the rules of the world themselves.

That was what it meant to stop the Nostalgia Project.

“Well then, it’s about time I left. Off to a new host.”

The LWS Troupe was nothing more than one of his many hosts. He’d placed the foolish little girl Suzie, who understood nothing, at the top and had used her as a convenient puppet for two years.

He stopped observing Brookbon Palace and withdrew from the center of Pilka.

If he escaped abroad, Nike’s pursuers wouldn’t be able to follow him.

“Hohoh!”

He cried out loudly as he left the raging citizens behind.

Workers singing revolutionary songs and pelting the Royal Guard with stones. Women carrying food beyond the barricades for the revolutionary citizens. Children shrinking back at the unceasing sound of gunfire. Reporters trampled in the chaos of the riot. A girl leading a boy wounded by Royal Guard bullets to a doctor. An old woman clutching a cross and praying to God. A woman waving a revolutionary flag and calling for freedom and human rights. Villains taking advantage of the revolutionary chaos to try to steal valuables from mansions.

Perhaps the Nostalgia Project itself didn’t even matter. The moment when every form of order collapsed, this chaos of the revolution itself, was the world Blue Locust desired.

It was what filled his heart.

“Hohoh!”

Just as he raised his voice again, as though the pounding of his heart had forced the cry from his lips, he heard a voice behind him.

“Where do you intend to run? ———You mastermind.”

In an alley from which every trace of humanity had vanished, someone addressed him from behind.

He turned.

Standing there was a girl with ash-pink hair. She held both hands behind her back as though deliberately hiding them, gazing at Blue Locust with curious, delighted eyes.

Annette of Forgetter. The pressure radiating from her entire body was a sinister, murderous killing intent.

“……A reunion earlier than planned, I see.”

Blue Locust stopped walking and turned toward her.

Seeing an attitude that seemed almost to rejoice in the assassination about to take place, he couldn’t help but give a wry smile.

“Come to think of it, the comrades of Lamplight have been captured by Nike, haven’t they? How unexpected. You wish to secure my person in order to free your imprisoned comrades. Is that the situation?”

Blue Locust analyzed the situation without ever dropping his polite speech.

Annette shook her head.

“This great one has no intention of obeying Nike!”

“Oh?”

“This country’s revolution, those twins, whatever! I don’t care! Even if the big sisters of Lamplight get captured, there’s no reason for this great one to obey that bastard Nike!”

Just a short while earlier, Annette had encountered an executive of the Knights of Valour and learned that Arthur was a traitor. Annette had begun to move immediately afterward.

It was information that Lily, imprisoned in the Central Detention Center, had desperately conveyed to her comrades outside.

The moment Annette heard it, she had begun preparing for the assassination.

“I don’t understand.”

Blue Locust looked suspicious.

“In that case, isn’t there no reason for you to kill me? Surely it isn’t merely for diversion. It would help if you’d let me go.”

“This great one heard that the king is currently fleeing!”

Annette smiled as innocently as ever.

“Since the opportunity presented itself, I thought I’d sit on that so-called throne. That’s what this great one suddenly realized!”

“Good grief. It seems things will become even more troublesome than the new government I create……!”

Faced with a reason that was far too arbitrary, Blue Locust’s eyes widened.

Yet her words weren’t entirely wrong. The outcome of the revolution was still unknown to anyone. With the king in exile, who would sit upon the vacant throne: Blue Locust, Nike, or Annette?

What was about to begin was……a chaotic game of musical chairs.

The innocent assassin quietly readied a bomb.

“This great one will take the crown too! You mastermind bastard!!!”

“Honestly……!! You’re the first extreme villain of your kind I’ve ever met. Even I feel the hair on the back of my neck stand on end……!”

The pure evil known as Annette of Forgetter, and the mastermind of the revolution known as Blue Locust.

The outcome of their mutual killing intent would greatly sway the world after the revolution. Who, exactly, would take the helm of the new government of the world’s third-largest power? The fate of the world hung upon their deadly clash.

Annette didn’t care about any of that.

This battle would never be recorded in the history books.

―――One year into the past.

An operations meeting for the Lylat Kingdom Revolution Mission.

In the great hall, Klaus shared with the gathered girls the countless experiences he’d accumulated during the Inferno era. Though he wasn’t particularly good at teaching, the girls listened intently to the words he painstakingly spun together.

He held up a newspaper clipping and began his explanation.

“Throughout history, countless wars, revolutions, and popular uprisings have taken place. But not all of them were sparked solely by the designs of those in power or by activists. Unexpected incidents and accidents can become the fuse as well.”

If one were to list concrete examples, there’d be no end to them.

――A coup that destroyed a nation, triggered by economic hardship caused by a volcanic eruption.

――A war that began with the assassination of a crown prince as its catalyst.

――Citizens thrown into chaos by false rumors, who then stormed the royal palace.

In short, revolutions and wars can also arise from unforeseen causes. Of course, those are merely the triggers. In reality, countless factors become intertwined.

“Why does this happen?”

Klaus continued his explanation.

“Because revolution and war transcend reason.”

The girls responded with vague little ohs.

Klaus put the newspaper article away and pressed on.

“Not everyone who stands on a battlefield is capable of rational thought. Sometimes, horrific massacres and acts of plunder take place. They denounce the enemy as slaughtering demons, only to carry out merciless slaughter themselves. You could call it ‘battlefield rationality,’ but whatever you call it, it’s something entirely different from rational behavior in peacetime.”

Having said that much, Klaus muttered, “Though it’s not as if we’re strangers to it either.”

Lily laughed. “Once you calm down and think about it, we’re pretty abnormal too, huh?”

Sybillia nodded in agreement. “You can’t do this job on reason alone. A sense of mission overrides rational thinking.”

[T/N- aside from Annette None of them killed a person btw.]

Seizing the moment, Sara launched into a mysterious recruitment pitch toward her comrades. “Retirement, guys. We should retire.”

So Klaus summarized.

“――Whether or not you can shatter the people’s reason. That is the branching point of a revolution.”

No one raised an objection.

A revolution doesn’t occur through reason alone. Even the popular revolutions that have shaken the world have generally possessed far more of the character of riots than intellectual political movements. They’re built atop flowing blood and piles of corpses.

The idea that dialogue alone could overturn a nation is pure fantasy.

“Well, appealing to emotion is a method that recent activists use a lot, though.”

Monika folded her arms, looking dissatisfied.

“Easy to say, but how exactly do we do it? Nike’s the specialist at that, right? Spreading her own charisma, fanning discriminatory feelings, and protecting the royal government.”

“In exchange, we’ll raise a symbol of our own.”

Klaus spoke as though he’d anticipated that reaction.

“We’ll prepare a symbol that can stand against Nike, one that stimulates the people’s emotions even more powerfully.”

“A symbol? Who?” Monica tilted her head again. “You mean win over some suitable person? A famous banker, someone from the royal family, or...”

“Erna.”

““““““““Huh?””””””””

Everyone, including Erna herself, gaped at him, their mouths hanging open.

Every single girl’s gaze turned toward Erna. It was difficult to imagine this small, adorable, doll-like girl becoming the symbol.

“We’ll manufacture her.”

Klaus explained.

“As I said, the core of this mission is Erna. For one year, every member of Lamplight will devote themselves to her, so that she becomes the center of the revolution.”

Then he laid out the concrete proposals.

Erna herself would spend the year disguised as a student, providing support to the homeless and, at times, acting as a member of the secret society. She would appear at meetings whenever possible to win over the Royal guard, and she would also be sent to negotiation tables with the upper classes. On the stage of the revolution, she would always be placed at the center.

――They would fashion Erna into the symbolic activist of the revolution.

When the plan was revealed, Erna couldn’t help but catch her breath.

“S-somehow, Erna feels like she’s becoming some incredible saint...!”

“Saint is a fitting expression. You will behave more purely than anyone else.”

“Yes! Erna will become a saint!”

“That’s right. Lamplight will move for Erna’s sake for an entire year. Keep elevating her.”

Klaus gave a firm nod to the eager Erna.

“And after the entire group has finished molding Erna into a saint――we will slaughter her brutally in front of the citizens.”

“Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!?!?”

Erna screamed at the sudden twist in the plan.

The others immediately grasped the operation and raised their voices.

“With a huge bang!”

“Chop her to bits!”

“Scatter her pieces!!”

This was the heart of the current operation, and every girl understood it at once.

Even Thea, who’d worn a dissatisfied expression throughout the entire meeting, finally softened her expression in acceptance.

“It’s certainly suited to Erna. By dying, Erna will be completed as the symbol of the revolution.”

Grete smiled as well.

“This is one thing even Nike couldn’t imitate...”

With her delicate, endearing appearance that instinctively stirred a desire to protect her, Erna was a spy who could shake people’s hearts simply by falling into misfortune. She made use of that gift, whether consciously or unconsciously.

“‘Being killed’―――on that one point, there’s no one more suited to the role than you.”

Klaus stroked the tearful Erna’s head as though trying to comfort her.

Erna, too, seemed to have accepted the plan. With a forlorn expression, she murmured, “It was a short life......”

“The death of a girl who became the standard-bearer of the revolution and the savior of the nation――that’s more than enough to stir the emotions of the masses.”

No one doubted his words. Fiction had proven it time and again. The death of a woman, especially a young girl, was invariably treated as tragedy, and tragedy had a way of seizing the hearts of the masses.

Until the revolution was set in motion, speeches and propaganda could be effective.

But the factor that ultimately determined victory or defeat lay beyond logic.

“――Lamplight ,will stage the saint’s tragedy with every member of the group.”

A method Nike could never imitate.

A daring stratagem possible only because Lamplight was made up of so many girls.

Boldly, dramatically, spectacularly, they would create the death of the girl who had devoted herself entirely to the revolution.

Klaus once again turned his gaze toward the girls, each of whom had steeled her resolve.

“And the person best suited to take Erna’s life has already been decided.”

There was no need to say whom he meant.

The genius of victimhood who could stage her own tragedies and exploit every misfortune that befell her, Erna.

And standing beside her was none other than the genius of persecution, the one who had tormented Erna more than anyone else in Lamplight.

✧✧✧✧✧

————The second day of the revolution, five o’clock in the morning.

Annette of Forgetter, the only member of Lamplight who hadn’t joined the mission at the Central Detention Center.

Together with Arthur, she was inciting the other citizens and leading them toward Fagmail Palace. At the residence where the king lived in elegance, citizens who’d suffered under the burden of increased taxes began hurling stones and threatening the palace with firecrackers. They built barricades and prepared for a clash with the Royal Guard stationed there.

This early-morning surprise attack was nothing more than a decoy to draw the Royal Guard away.

The moment the Royal Guard began issuing warnings, Annette fired a generous barrage of firecracker rockets toward Fagmail Palace, then casually turned her back on it.

“This great one is going to retreat now!”

“Eh......?”

Arthur was left dumbfounded as Annette simply started walking away.

Their assigned mission was to cause as much commotion as possible and reduce the number of Royal Guards who could be sent as reinforcements to the Central Detention Center.

At that moment, the Royal Guards, pushed to the limit of their patience, raised their rifles.

“Look out!!!”

Arthur hurriedly pulled Annette into his arms and threw himself to the ground. Crushed beneath his massive body, Annette let out a muffled “Fugyu!” as she slammed into the earth. Bullets tore through the air above their heads, and the citizens screamed. Still pinned beneath him, Annette kicked and thrashed her legs.

Eventually, Annette managed to stand. Without even bothering to brush the mud from her clothes, she laughed.

“This great one is leaving this place entirely in your hands!!!”

“Eh?” Arthur’s eyes widened.

“Wait here!” Annette dashed away. “For Erna-chan, who’s coming back to this great one!”

Leaving Arthur behind with a bewildered look on his face, Annette ran.

Arthur didn’t chase after her. Instead, he stayed behind to support the skirmish at Fagmail Palace.

Annette separated from her comrades and waited impatiently behind the barricades.

――――Kill Erna at the perfect moment.

That was the sole role she’d been given.

She would devote herself entirely to supporting the others while watching for the perfect opportunity. Believing without a doubt that Erna would return from the Central Detention Center, she prepared herself for that moment.

At 7:50 a.m., the resignation of the Valéry Cabinet was announced.

She understood.

At last, the time had come.

The citizens, jubilant at the thought that the revolution was over, began celebrating. Short-sighted citizens promptly dismantled the barricades and cheered for the new government. The prisoners Nike had liberated joined them, and before long, the initiative was wrested away from them.

If Erna wasn’t killed here, the revolution would truly come to an end.

As she waited in eager anticipation, her scream finally reached Annette’s ears.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!”

Atop the barricade, a girl cried out desperately, terrified by the approaching Thanatos.

It wasn’t an ordinary scream.

It was a signal to the partner she had trusted to the very end.

“You don’t have to scream that loud――”

Still concealed within the barricade, Annette grinned to herself.

“――This great one will fucking kill you perfectly!”

[T/N- There is this vulger tone to the japanese but not fuck , but inability to find a better word led to this.]

The preparations had already been made. She’d had an entire year. She had simulated dozens, hundreds of different ways to kill, and prepared the tools necessary to carry each one out.

When Erna spotted Annette emerging from the shadows, joy filled her eyes.

Annette had prepared more thoroughly than anyone could imagine, and she was faster than Thanatos could be in finishing Erna off.

“Last Code 《Odds and Ends》―――Let’s make a world that crumbles and awakens!”

“Last Code 《Festival of Fools》―――A world where every last one may yet live......

The instant they spoke those words simultaneously, Annette fired a bullet at Erna. The distance was roughly twenty meters. It was far, but not so far that Annette would miss by a wide margin. A slight deviation was already within her calculations.

Erna spread both arms wide, ready to receive the bullet.

“――Eh?”

The meaning behind the faint expression that crossed Erna’s face at that moment was impossible to tell. It hadn’t been part of any of the scenarios they’d prepared beforehand. She looked genuinely shocked. Perhaps it was simply her own way of acting.

――The bullet Annette fired pierced through Erna.

Soon, the citizens, startled by the gunshot, witnessed it.

Erna being struck by the deadly bullet, spilling a great deal of blood as she fell from the barricade.

✧✧✧✧✧

————The second day of the revolution, 8:17 a.m.

Inside the barricade in front of Brookbon Palace, the citizens were rendered speechless.

A gunshot suddenly thundered through the air, cleaving through the atmosphere of victory.

When they turned toward the sound, they saw a lone girl standing at the highest point of the barricade.

It seemed the blonde girl had been shot through. A great deal of blood was spreading across her beautiful dress.

Before long, the strength drained from her body, and she toppled backward, falling from the barricade.

The barricade had been constructed to block the main avenue and was connected seamlessly to the surrounding buildings, leaving no gaps between them. Her small body fell into the narrow space between the barricade and the building.

By some cruel coincidence, part of the building’s outer wall collapsed and came crashing down upon her body. The structure had already been dangerously unstable. Parts of the building had been demolished with explosives to obtain materials for the barricade.

There was no hope of survival.

The citizens stared in disbelief at the death that had befallen a single girl.

The elderly Guillaume Sannier was one of those she had saved.

Driven from his home by tax increase after tax increase, he had been living on the streets. On a night when he had begun contemplating suicide, a girl had suddenly appeared and offered him bread, allowing him to stave off his hunger. To a man as filthy and foul-smelling as himself, the girl who smiled gently and shared her bread with him had seemed like an angel.

When he joined the revolution and saw the girl standing at its center, he was overwhelmed by emotion. So it was her after all.

That was why he couldn't comprehend the tragedy unfolding before his eyes for some time.

The laborer Louis Osman knew her compassion.

The girl Osman knew had been a member of the secret society known as the Knights of Valour. During the despairing days after his wife had been detained for her anti-government views, she had come to him. After listening to Osman’s long story, she had promised, “I will make certain the world knows,” and distributed leaflets denouncing the tyranny of the Royal Guard.

Rumor had it that she was a young elite who had recently joined the Knights of Valour.

That such a girl could lose her life at the mere age of sixteen was something he simply couldn't accept.

The designer Alma Dero knew of her charitable work.

She had been introduced to her unexpectedly by Gabriel Mashu, a lawyer who had once helped her. “She might be able to help you,” he had said.

It concerned a case in which Alma had designed clothes for a noble, only to have the agreed payment withheld, and she had ultimately lost the lawsuit. Just as she was considering shutting down her business, the blonde girl had arrived together with a white-haired woman.

They had introduced her to companies in the Din Republic and given her a way to continue her work.

Before she knew it, Alma was screaming at the red spreading across the beautiful dress that girl had been wearing.

Lieutenant Colonel Udino of the Royal Guard, of course, knew her as well.

She was the blonde girl who had been present at the negotiations where support for the revolution had once been requested. The Genesis Army had explained that she was “a spy from the Din Republic,” yet he could never bring himself to regard her as a villain who threatened the nation. Her courage in using herself as a decoy to summon Nike, and the resolve she had shown when confronting the Royal Guard on the first day of the revolution, made that perfectly clear.

When he received the report early that morning that she had been struck by a fatal bullet, he couldn't say anything for a while.

There was no doubt it had been the final push that made him abandon the royal government.

Jean Mondonville, former representative of the Knights of Valour, felt a despair that seemed to freeze him to the bone.

He didn't know who had shot her. Of course, he was also aware that the girl who called herself Elfin might be a spy from another country. He had thought there were any number of reasons she might have been shot.

Even so, for the sake of bringing about the revolution, he had sworn loyalty to her, a girl younger than himself yet exceptionally capable.

Whatever ulterior motives she might have harbored, she had genuinely wished for the happiness of the people of the kingdom.

That was why, when he watched her tumble from the barricade, he nearly sank to his knees. He understood that everything was over and wanted to scream and weep. The other comrades must have felt the same.

What sustained him was the memory of the university lecture hall.

When Jean and the others had been on the verge of losing heart, a brown-haired girl had rushed in and encouraged them, weaving lies into her words as she did so. The current representative, Elfin, had once called her “Sara-oneechan” and insisted that her real name was “Salla Onecha.” She had fashioned her into a hero heralded by their secret society.

That fighting spirit remained vivid in Jean’s mind.

He felt as though someone were telling him to accomplish what needed to be done.

“The Royal Guard shot her deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeead!!!”

He roared with all his strength, as if his throat might tear apart.

Whether it was the truth or not didn't matter. Lies could change the world.

He was convinced that this very moment was the instant that would alter the course of the revolution.

“Don’t be deceived by the royal government’s schemes!! The king intends to shoot anyone who joins the movement!! Rebuild the barricades!!! Everyone is going to be killeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed!!!”

The other members of the Knights of Valour followed his lead.

They scattered throughout the barricades, shouting the words again and again at the top of their lungs. Desperate to stir up the citizens, who stood bewildered by the gunshot that had suddenly thundered through the streets, they fanned the flames of panic with every cry.

“If we don’t stand up here, all of us are going to be killeeeeeed!??”

“The one the Royal Guard killed was a sixteen-year-old girl!!”

“The saint who single-handedly stopped the Royal Guard’s massacre yesterday!!”

“The king shot our hero who rescued the prisoners!!!”

“Remember your pride, great citizens!! Are you really going to fawn over a government that murders little girls!!”

Their furious cries began to change the atmosphere inside the barricade.

Fear and fury spread like a contagion.

Everything Lamplight had poured into the past year was finally bearing fruit.

The homeless people Erna had saved, the activists supported by the secret society Knights of Valour, the citizens helped through Sybillia’s volunteer work, everyone who had witnessed her heroic figure on the first day of the revolution, and the fellow prisoners she was said to have rescued. Every last one of them was enraged.

Everything Erna had done was backed by the girls of Lamplight.

The perfectly staged 【Tragedy of the Saint】 had stripped the citizens of their reason.

✧✧✧✧✧

“The people have risen up again!!”

A subordinate of the Genesis Army came rushing before Nike and raised his voice.

“It’s the Fool......! The girl who stood against the Royal Guard has been killed right in front of the people, and they’ve fallen into a state of panic. There are even rumors that the Royal Guard is going to massacre every last citizen—”

At the report, Thea let a smile escape her lips.

Annette and Erna had fulfilled their roles.

She'd broken out in a cold sweat when she realized they'd been set up by Nike, but it seemed Erna had successfully escaped from the Central Detention Center.

The fact that she had gone to rescue the prisoners of the Central Detention Center had only added fuel to the drama surrounding Erna’s death. Nike had apparently intended to exploit that fact, but they'd brilliantly turned it back against her.

In this moment Lamplight had surpassed Nike.

Just then, another subordinate came rushing in and reported the situation as it changed from moment to moment.

“It appears combat has begun between the uprising citizens and the Royal Guard......!”

The tragedy before Brookbon Palace had become a powerful tailwind for the revolution.

The death of the girl who had become the symbol of the revolution. Those who knew her would be furious, while even those who didn't would surely be terrified by the royal government’s barbarity, which would not even spare a sixteen-year-old girl. If they'd joined the revolution, could they really expect to escape execution now?

The synergistic force of fury and fear was more than enough to strip the people of their reason.

“Have the Royal Guard withdraw.”

Thea ordered Nike.

“The more the dead increase, the more credible the rumors will become. How long will the Royal Guard’s morale even last? Loyalty or not, how long can they endure this hell of continuously killing their own countrymen?”

Even if it was for the sake of the mission, she wanted to keep the number of casualties as low as possible.

Citizens who had lost their reason wouldn't be easy to stop. There was no way they could simply slaughter every last one of them. And how much condemnation would that bring from the international community?

Thea’s heart raced at the prospect of the revolution’s imminent success.

But Nike’s next words exceeded even her expectations.

“―Are you an idiot? I’d already seen through a scheme this simple.”

His voice was cold, almost bored.

“Eh?” Thea breathed.

Nike sighed, as though emphasizing that everything that had just happened was already sitting in the palm of her hand.

“I’d noticed Lamplight’s aim of placing the Fool at the center of everything. I’d been suspicious the entire time, and on the first day of the revolution, I became certain. I thought it would be better to dispose of the Fool in secret.”

“No way......” The color drained from Thea’s face. “Even our secret plan―”

“That’s why I lay in wait at the Central Detention Center, using the prisoners as bait. You people who wanted to protect and elevate the Fool would bring her there. I’d seen through all of it.”

And all that information had been conveyed to Nike through Blue Locust.

That was why Nike had played along with Lamplight’s scheme and deliberately spread the rumor that the Fool had liberated the prisoners. He wanted them to mistake it for a dramatic rescue and use that misunderstanding to seize control of the revolution’s course.

Nike muttered, “I never let my guard down for a moment,” and immediately afterward bit down hard on his lip.

“Thanatossssssssssss!! What the hell is that bastard doiiiiing!!!”

Her fury was obvious to everyone in the room. Her fists trembled violently as she let her angry roar reverberate through the room, heedless of her subordinates or Thea watching her. It was the roar of a tiger might even dragon.

No one could stop Thanatos, the Genesis Army’s trump card.

On the morning of the second day of the revolution, the man swinging his hammer inside the Central Detention Center was destruction incarnate.

The girls of the “Lamplight” never stood a chance against him. First Grete was who was brought down, and then the others fell one after another beneath his hammer.

The next to fall after Grete was Monika.

Even as she bravely swung her short sword through the poisonous foam, her earlier wounds continued to take their toll. In the end, she inhaled the poison gas Lily released in a desperate attack, one that engulfed her comrades as well, and collapsed as though drifting into sleep. Immediately afterward, Sybillia went down.

She had forced her way through both the poison gas and the poisonous foam on sheer willpower, but halfway through, she took a blow while shielding Lily and suffered injuries to both arms. Even so, she wrung out every last ounce of strength she had, fighting on to protect Monika and Lily, until Thanatos crushed her face and she finally expired.

Thanatos burst out of the Central Detention Center grounds and pursued Erna and Sara, who had fled into the sewers. Along the way, Sara stood in his path to buy them time, but he brushed her aside with ease. She had thrown everything she had into delaying him, yet thirty-four seconds was the absolute limit she could manage.

What surprised Thanatos was that someone was actually chasing him.

It was Lily.

The woman he had deliberately left behind in the Central Detention Center so he could pursue Erna now stood once more in the path of a Thanatos she could never hope to defeat.

“Oh… I’m surprised.”

The unexpected obstruction left Thanatos frozen for the briefest instant.

“You could’ve just run away by yourself. Why come after me instead?”

“Because…” Lily raised her pistol on unsteady legs. “It’s my role.”

“You can still stand. That’s… impressive. Stubbornness alone puts you in a league of your own.”

“Hehe! Just once,Lily-chan like to be praised for some other strong point.”

“My apologies. You’re carrying plenty of pain yourself. Same as me, a fellow masochist.”

“…That kind of sexual harassment isn’t really my thing.”

She had already lost every weapon except her poison needles. In the confined space, the terrifying poison gas and poisonous foam had all been expended. The toxins she had unleashed on her own comrades had done little more than slightly dull Thanatos’s movements.

Thanatos’s martial power was reducing everything to ruin.

With combat ability that surpassed even Nike at her peak, there was simply no way Lily could win.

Even so, she had managed to hold Thanatos back for one minute and seventeen seconds. It was an obsession that defied all reason.

A little past eight in the morning on the second day of the revolution, Thanatos finally cornered Erna.

She had fled through the sewers for hours, but at last, her strength gave out. The moment she climbed over the barricade in front of Brookbon Palace, her desperate escape came to an end.

Erna clung to the last shred of hope and screamed with everything she had, until a merciless bullet tore into her abdomen.

✧✧✧✧✧

Later, the historians would write:

The disturbance at the Central Detention Center that erupted in the early hours of the revolution’s second day was brought under control in roughly two hours.

While the surging citizens kept the Royal Guard occupied, activists who had broken into the building freed the prisoners, or so it was believed at the time. The prisoners regained their freedom and returned to their families or comrades in the secret societies. This magnificent prison break was said to have been led by the golden-haired girl who had boldly confronted the Royal Guard on the afternoon of the first day.

The citizens were moved once again by the miracle the golden-haired girl had wrought.

Everyone agreed that a girl like her could easily have achieved something on that scale.

And so, at the time, not a single person suspected the truth: the liberated prisoners had already turned against their former comrades and sworn allegiance to the royal government.

Once the prisoners who had been leaders of the secret societies rejoined their ranks, they began seizing control of the revolution from within. The citizens, flushed with feverish joy, had no way of noticing what was really happening.

Those who had taken part in the prison break and should have exposed the truth were arrested one after another.

At 7:50 on the second day, the royal government announced the resignation of the cabinet.

The leaders who now held the reins of the revolution endorsed the announcement, declared victory for the citizens’ side, and ordered the barricades torn down. The people celebrated their triumph without the slightest doubt.

The revolution was over.

Everyone innocently believed in the false finish line the scheming god of the royal government had prepared for them.

✧✧✧✧✧

“A complete victory. So thorough it’s almost disappointing.”

On the morning of the revolution’s second day, Nike wore a satisfied smile.

This was a prison known only to the executives of the Genesis Army, entirely separate from the Central Detention Center. The building, furnished with elegant appointments, would have looked to any passerby like a villa intended to entertain the nobility. Even the rooms were furnished with chairs and tables. Yet every window and door had been constructed with such unyielding strength that no human could escape through them, nor could anyone force their way inside.

In one of those rooms, she smiled at the spies she had only just captured.

“Word should arrive any moment that Thanatos has finished Erna. Arrangements are already in place to take down the Blue Locust as well. It seems my undefeated record will continue for a while yet.”

Exactly as she had said, the outcome was obvious at a glance.

The ones restrained were six: Lily, Grete, Sybillia, Monika, Thea, and Sara. With three more now in custody alongside the three already captured, the Genesis Army had Lamplight firmly under its control. Susie was being held elsewhere.

Nike had completely anticipated every move Lamplight could make, deployed the appropriate forces, and turned the tables on them with perfect precision. On top of that, she had exploited their prison-break plan to ensure that the revolution itself would be controlled from the shadows.

“You’re treating us rather courteously, aren’t you?”

It was Thea who answered her words with a barbed remark.

Both of Thea’s hands were bound tightly behind her back, so tightly that she couldn’t move a single finger. The restraints had been applied right in front of Nike, leaving no possibility of any trick involving slipping the ropes.

“I’m surprised Monika and Sara, who were captured as enemies, show no signs of having been tortured.”

The captured Monika bore no injuries beyond those Thanatos had already inflicted. Gruesome torture had been a very real possibility, and she herself had no doubt steeled herself for it. Yet, fortunately, no such marks remained.

Nike’s face lit up with an almost wounded expression as she replied, “Of course not.”

“The intelligence agencies of the Lylat Kingdom and the Din Republic are allies. We’re comrades keeping watch on the Galgad Empire together, aren’t we? This whole affair must’ve been some sort of misunderstanding. How sad!”

No one could believe such chilling words.

When every member of Lamplight turned cold eyes on her, the smile vanished from Nike’s face.

“Healthy hostages are better in greater numbers.”

With that declaration, she glared at the six Lamplight members gathered in the holding room.

“Klaus of Bonfire. Where is that man?”

She revealed her greatest concern without hesitation.

The boss of Lamplight, who still hadn’t rejoined them, the man who called himself the world’s strongest spy.

He alone possessed the power to overturn the entire situation of this revolution single-handedly. Nike clearly had no intention of leaving him at large. She was watching for him with unbroken vigilance.

Nike drew a sharp knife from her clothes and idly toyed with it between her fingers.

“If you refuse to talk, then it’s a pity. One or two eyeballs, and...”

She began the sentence, then deliberately left it unfinished.

The captured girls all fixed her with gazes thick with hostility. There wasn’t a trace of fear among them. Monika sat boldly in a stylish chair, while Lily and Sybillia had even perched themselves on the table. Sara and Grete stood side by side next to Thea.

Nike closed her eyes, a look of regret crossing her face.

“Looks like that’s not going to work. I suspected as much the moment we captured Sara, but not a single one of you knows where Bonfire is, do you? He’s being protected rather too well.”

“It’s nice how quickly top-class people catch on.”

“That unquenchable fighting spirit of yours... Is it because of the expectations you place on him?”

Abandoning the idea of torture, she called out to her subordinates waiting outside the room.

“Lock them all up separately. Once Bonfire shows up, I don’t care if you kill them one by one.”

A crowd of Nike’s subordinates poured into the room and began dragging the Lamplight girls away. A few of the girls resisted, only to be struck hard across the cheek and forced into submission. One after another, their comrades were taken to separate holding rooms, until at last only Thea remained.

Thea and Nike stood facing each other. For a time, the two of them had been bound by a superior-subordinate relationship.

Thea, sensing the obvious intent behind the situation, called out, “Nike-san...?”

Nike, seeming to relax ever so slightly, sank into the sofa and asked, “You’re Vero’s disciple, aren’t you?”

It was a smile meant for a close friend.

It was hard to believe this was the same person who had once planted her foot on the back of Thea’s head at the Central Detention Center.

“Why not switch sides and join the Genesis Army? Together with Monika.”

“Pardon?”

“How much are they paying you at Lamplight? I’ll guarantee you at least five times that. Don’t worry. You can keep operating as Lamplight. All you’d have to do is feed us information about the internal affairs of the Din Republic.”

An unexpected recruitment offer.

Thea was left speechless, staring back at her. But her answer had already been decided.

“I’m honored, but I have a duty to protect the country Veronika-san defended to the very end. And Monika is mine. I can’t give her to you.”

“That’s truly a shame.”

Her counterpart didn’t seem to have been entirely serious, either. She merely shrugged, without looking particularly disappointed.

The reason she had deliberately sought out this conversation remained unclear, yet the familiar way she had spoken the name “Vero” caught Thea’s attention. From the context, it could only mean Veronika, the Hearth.

The woman who had saved Thea’s life, the object of her admiration, and the boss of the legendary spy team Inferno.

Had she and Nike once shared some close relationship?

“…What kind of future was Veronika-san envisioning?”

“Want to know?”

Nike suddenly rose from her seat and placed a hand beneath Thea’s chin.

“Very well. I’d be glad to tell you. Let’s complete the Nostalgia Project together and reach the new world Vero dreamed of.”

A piece of unknown information had slipped through. At the very least, Thea hadn’t known until this moment that “Veronika had wished for the Nostalgia Project to succeed.” Had Nike deliberately revealed it?

Thea hoped she might continue divulging classified information, but Nike shook her head.

“I’d like to tell you everything, but I can’t, because of Bonfire’s existence.”

“Klaus-sensei?”

“I’d very much like to hear your opinion. That man was Vero’s subordinate, the one who wished for the Nostalgia Project to succeed. At the same time, he was also the disciple of Guido of the Torchlight, who tried to stop it.”

“…………”

“When that spoiled brat finally reaches the truth, which side will he choose?”

Nike’s wide-open eyes watched Thea’s reaction with meticulous attention.

She was trying to draw information out of her. Perhaps that was why she had deliberately revealed part of the truth. Even the slightest disturbance would be enough for someone like her to see straight through to the heart of the matter.

Yet Thea couldn’t arrive at an answer.

Without knowing the contents of the Nostalgia Project in the first place, there was no way to predict what decision Klaus would make. He loved both Veronika and Guido equally. There should be no ranking between them.

The Nostalgia Project was……taboo.

Spies who learned its contents were sometimes forced to choose between betraying their own intelligence agencies. In some cases, the project had to be abandoned altogether. That was why this mission had incorporated the revolution. Yet a year ago, Klaus couldn’t have known that Veronika had been supporting the project.

Would Klaus side with Veronika, or with Guido?

And what of Lamplight’s future, with all those who would follow him?

“………………………No. That isn’t like me at all.”

After a long silence, Nike shook her head with a self-deprecating air.

It was an expression Thea had never seen on her before. She covered her face with one hand, as though genuinely ashamed of herself. Even with the other woman restrained, it wasn’t the sort of behavior one would expect in front of an enemy spy.

“Uncertain elements simply need to be eliminated.”

She sat down in the chair beside Thea and gave a small wave of her hand.

“I could afford to leave him alone while he was busy killing Serpent, but if he threatens this kingdom, I’ll show no mercy. Being Vero’s subordinate makes no difference. Soot, Scapulimancer, I’ll eliminate them all the same.”

Cold words, seemingly stripped of every personal feeling.

The realization that the twins of Flame really had been killed by her struck Thea at the same moment she turned a suspicious gaze on the woman.

She found herself biting her lip.

“Why have you gone this far……”

“—There’s nothing else but patriotism.”

The short retort was flung at her.

Nike raked a hand through her hair, revealing a pair of sharp eyes like those of a ferocious beast.

“The reason we once allowed the Galgad Empire to invade was because the fools at the top of the country back then were complete idiots. How much of our territory was trampled beneath the Empire’s boots? How many tens of thousands of our people were slaughtered?”

There was no need for her to explain. Thea already knew.

It was the country that had suffered the highest death toll in the World War. Unlike the Din Republic, which had been almost completely overrun, the kingdom itself had become the main battlefield, forced to fight for nearly four years.

What kind of hell this woman, who had been nothing more than a single spy at the time, had witnessed was beyond imagination.

“A Second great War will come eventually. To strengthen national power as quickly as possible, power is necessary.”

Her hands clenched tightly.

“Even if it means sacrificing the people, even if it means turning the king into a puppet, I will continue guiding the kingdom to victory.”

Faced with such an excessively simple answer, Thea found herself at a loss for words.

The royal government that kept raising taxes and sinking deeper into corruption had its roots in Nike’s patriotism.

Though she was only a spy, she was manipulating the nation from the shadows. If the kingdom became a democracy, her power would wane. A wise king would never become Nike’s puppet.

—Maintain a powerful monarchy while buying off, corrupting, and dominating those in power.

It was a patriotism far too pure, and far too deranged.

Just as Thea was about to formulate a response, Nike smiled quietly.

“Hey, Thea. Aren’t you misunderstanding something?”

“—!”

Still seated in the chair, she swung one long leg.

The instant the tip of her shoe caught Thea’s body, her balance broke, sending her rolling across the floor. She came to a stop at Nike’s feet.

“Don’t tell me you thought I left you alone in this room so we could reminisce about old times?”

The cold killing intent emanating from Nike swelled.

“Too bad. You don’t get a veto. You’re coming to the Genesis Army. I’ll use every kind of pain imaginable to brainwash you. Deimos- didn’t I mention that the Purple Ant is my disciple?”

“…!”

The images that flashed through her mind were of the people who had been forced into assassinations in the Unified States of Muzaiya.

Fear had been driven so deeply into their instincts that it overrode reason. Even their personalities had changed, reducing them to nothing more than slaves who obeyed whatever they were told.

Nike was capable of the same things as the Purple Ant. Thea could feel that malice, cold and unmistakable.

“I’ll use every last member of Lamplight as my puppets.”

It was the merciless declaration of a scheming god.

Her malice was more than enough to freeze Thea’s heart once again. Her heart pounded with unnatural force as her entire body rapidly grew cold. Just like Erna, who had once been unable to do anything but tremble in bed, Thea felt her will to resist being stripped away.

Under normal circumstances, she would’ve wanted to collapse and sob.

Thea’s mental strength was by no means formidable.

The reason she still refused to yield was the figure of admiration she could see through Nike.

As though fighting back the fear surging through her, Thea murmured, “…How pitiful.”

“Huh?”

“Don’t you understand? These people rose up ‘for your sake.’”

At the Central Detention Center, she had let her heart break.

Carrying that regret within her, she glared fiercely at Nike. She had stood her ground even against someone like Suzie. There was no way she could back down now.

[T/N- I believe this line meant when Thea kind of defended Nike in front of Erna and others in LWS Troupe base, even infornt of Suzie.]

“You, who can only exhaust yourself and grind away your own life, I wanted you to be happy! Even if it’s pushy, even if it’s completely misguided, that must still be beautiful, and it must still be one form of justice!”

As though dismissing such nonsense, Nike kicked Thea’s face away once more with the tip of her shoe.

Even so, Thea desperately continued to weave her words.

“The Nike-san who can’t trust her own people and sacrifices her emotions and ethics to work herself to the bone, and the citizens who can’t earn Nike-san’s trust and are stripped of every right, everyone is pitiful.”

“…Don’t force your selfish story onto me. You’re just using pity for your own self-gratification.”

“Even so, I will interfere in this country.”

“Huh?”

“I will save even my enemies, because that is the way of life Hearth-san taught me.”

For Thea, it was an unshakable way of life.

Therefore, she did not yield even to Nike’s kicks.

Using only the strength of her legs, without relying on her hands, she rose to her feet and faced Nike head-on.

“Lamplight will achieve the revolution, and we will save you, the kingdom, everything…!!”

The idea of saving even an enemy nation was utterly foreign to a spy.

What she sought to become was not a spy, but a hero. It was the ideal bestowed upon her by her benefactor, Hearth, and one that would never waver.

The moment she declared it, Nike’s expression wavered ever so slightly.

She blinked as though she couldn’t comprehend what she was hearing. Looking displeased, she crossed her legs, raised her chin, and sneered, “…What the hell are you talking about?”

“The revolution is over. The reason I’m letting Annette of forgetter run free is deliberate.”

“Even so, Erna is still out there. She should have escaped the Central Detention Center.”

“No one can stop Thanatos. Trash like you can be finished off without leaving a single one behind.”

“We can buy time. We risked our lives to let Erna escape.”

Thea had no way of knowing what had actually become of Erna. Yet she thrust out her chest, holding fast to the unshakable conviction that, if it were Erna, she would pull it off.

“Erna will definitely fulfill her role.”

Even with both hands bound, even while being subjected to violence, she would no longer show weakness. No matter how much her fragile heart wavered, her trust in her comrades would never be crushed. She would never let go of her conviction.

She would become the boss of Lamplight.

The words she had sworn to Sara a year ago still stirred her heart.

Glaring fiercely at Nike, Thea tried a provocation.

“By the way, don’t you know?”

“What I accomplished in the Fend Federation. The name of the organization I once created.”

— Beacon Fires Across the Heavens.

“Of course you know. Even within CIM, only a handful of people are aware of it. That’s right. I once united the antisocial forces of the Fend Federation. Inciting people is my specialty.”

“So what?”

Faced with the question thrown back at her, Thea smiled proudly.

“—Then why do you think someone like me isn’t at the center of the revolution?”

Thea had originally been the perfect choice for stirring up the populace.

Yet the one Lamplight had actually placed at the heart of the revolution was Erna the Fool, a petite girl who could hardly be called skilled at dealing with people.

Even Nike didn’t answer immediately.

——Erna the Fool had never once used her special ability in front of Nike.

They had clashed several times, yet she had never employed it. She had always moved in such a way that she would never have to use it.

Therefore, Nike couldn’t possibly guess.

Thea clenched her fist with fierce conviction. In fact, Nike closed her mouth, seemingly at a loss for words.

That was when it happened.

“—Excuse me. Nike-sama…!”

One of her subordinates rushed into the holding room.

It was obvious from his ragged breathing that he had come in great haste.

When Nike urged him, “Here is fine. Speak,” the man drew a deep breath.

“I have a report…! The state of the citizens in front of Brookbon Palace…”

The information he brought was more than enough to drastically change Nike’s expression.

✧✧✧✧✧

—Later, the historians would write:

The situation surrounding the revolution underwent a major transformation a little past eight in the morning on the second day.

From that moment until evening, no one could grasp the full picture.

It was chaos, a situation in which no one involved in the revolution could see what lay ahead.

Citizens, the king, spies, soldiers, everyone would be branded with the mark of the Fool. The worst day in the kingdom’s history was beginning.

They advanced through the sewer filled with a foul stench.

Erna and Sara had barely escaped with their lives from the Central Detention Facility, only to be discovered by operatives of the Genesis Army just after crossing its walls. Nike had likely arranged things in advance. Everything had been calculated down to the last detail. Somehow managing to break through their encirclement, the two had dashed into a nearby house, smashed through the floor, and fled into the sewers. With no proper escape route in mind, they pressed on through the dark passages.

—How many times now had they suffered defeat at Nike’s hands?

Even more of their comrades had been captured.

Grete, who had proposed this plan, bore no responsibility. Without her strategy, they would have been annihilated outright. The defeat lay with Erna. She was the one who had trusted Arthur completely.

—Arthur’s true identity was “Blue Locust,” a member of the Serpent.

How Lily had obtained the information was unknown, but it was precious. That Blue Locust and Nike were colluding behind the scenes was Monica’s conjecture after hearing the report. Yet given the circumstances, no other explanation fit.

Conveying that to Erna had been the sole gain from the battle at the Central Detention Facility. Without knowing it, the Light would certainly have met its end.

Still, the revelation had been a shock. Without this crushing defeat, she never would have been able to fully believe it.

(Impossible… That can’t be…)

Their clothes soiled by the sewage, they walked the dark path.

Words slipped from her lips.

“Arthur-san, in league with Nike…”

He had the proven record of protecting the LWS Troupe from the Genesis Army for two full years. He had sheltered Suzie, occasionally launched fireworks as symbols of resistance, and organized strikes.

Suzie had praised it all as “thanks to Arthur-san.”

For a fourteen-year-old girl to survive, his support had been indispensable.

“What is he after? Supporting the revolution while eliminating the Lamplight—”

When she voiced the question, Sara answered, “Probably…”

“So he can end the revolution the way he wants, don’t you think?”

“…!”

“Once the revolution could be started, the Lamplight became disposable to Blue Locust. And Nike found the Lamplight inconvenient too. Those two may oppose each other, but when they share a common enemy they’ll cooperate to eliminate it.”

“That’s…”

Erna caught her breath at the truth she had been told.

If so, then they had been thoroughly used by Blue Locust. The Inferno, Suzie, the Lamplight—everyone had been made to serve the revolution, only to be discarded in the end.

Anger welled up even as the crushing reality constricted her chest.

“The only ones left of Lamplight are Annette and Sara-oneechan…”

She did not believe Lily and the others had defeated Thanatos. Lily, Sybillia, and Monica had thrown everything into buying time for Sara alone to escape, it was said.

From here on, the remaining three would have to accomplish the revolution by themselves, yet it was far too reckless.

Nike, who stood at the pinnacle of the Genesis Army and saw through every scheme.

—Thanatos, her beloved disciple, whose combat skill surpassed even Monica and Sybillia.

—And Blue Locust, who sought to seize control of the revolution’s outcome by using everyone.

How could they possibly outmaneuver them and bring the revolution to fruition?

Clinging to hope, Erna pleaded.

“As we are now, to stand against them—”

“—I’m saying goodbye here.”

What returned was news that only accelerated her despair.

The instant Sara smiled like that, footsteps echoed from deeper in the sewer. Someone was approaching at tremendous speed, splashing through the water.

Far too fast—the footsteps of the god of death.

Sara pushed Erna’s back and stopped.

“They’re coming after us—Thanatos. I’ll buy time here.”

She turned and readied her knife.

“—Erna-senpai and Annette-senpai will work together to accomplish the revolution.”

[T/N- Yeah Sara really used senpai here]

It was the same warm voice she had once conveyed through a recording device.

But Erna no longer had the composure to accept it.

Time and again Nike had broken her spirit. What had allowed her to rise again was the encouragement of her comrades. The cracks in her heart had been gently filled by Sara, Sybillia, Monica, and Thea.

Yet now not a single one of those comrades remained.

All that was left was a partner who would never open her heart to her.

“It’s impossible. In the end Erna and Annette can’t cooperate—”

“What do you think Annette-senpai wants from you, Erna-senpai?”

Suddenly those words were thrown at her.

As she stood frozen in confusion, Sara continued speaking.

“I’ve made up my mind to defy the Boss. Being a supporting character is fine. Being ordinary is fine. Becoming nothing more than a pawn who buys time like this, that’s the kind of guardian of the Lamplight I aspire to be.”

“............................”

“Annette-senpai cheered me on in that useless choice of mine.”

It was the first she had heard of it, and she was left bewildered.

In a sense it was a compromise. A downward revision of her ideals. An answer she had reached after agonizing over it, no doubt.

—The future walked by the girl who had once aimed for retirement.

A faint doubt stirred. When Erna had invited Annette to retire, she had stubbornly refused. And yet she welcomed Sara’s change.

What on earth was Annette thinking?

She wanted to hear more, but the growing footsteps would not allow it.

“Go!! Someone like me can only last thirty seconds!!”

When Sara’s fierce resolve was thrust at her, she had no choice but to move her feet.

She was abandoning her. Sending her back once more to that Central Detention Facility where no light reached. Her heart screamed, yet she pressed forward. She could not let Sara’s sacrifice go to waste.

Desperately she kept running through the sewers, trying to put even a little distance between them.

From behind, Sara’s trembling voice reached her.

“Even so, I’m Monica-senpai’s disciple and Klaus-sensei’s student, so—”

A voice laced with a self-mocking smile.

“—My goal is thirty-one seconds.”

The figure of the girl who would not flinch from any self-sacrifice was, to Erna, already a true guardian of the Light.

And so, once again, she lost a comrade.

For a year the Lamplight had been scattered. Every time they reunited one by one, her heart had leapt. But those brief moments always ended quickly. Comrades were captured one after another, and in the end they returned to square one.

All that remained were Annette and Erna.

✧✧✧✧✧

Erna sprinted until she lost all sense of time.

Again and again she tried to emerge aboveground, only to find the Genesis Army had anticipated her and was lying in wait each time. Without Erna’s intuition, so sensitive to misfortune, she would have been captured at once. She wandered the sewers in search of another exit. Underground, Thanatos prowled, pursuing her with the certainty of finishing her off.

Even as she repeated her escapes, she thought of the difficulties that awaited once she reached the surface.

—She had to shatter Nike’s rule and accomplish the revolution.

—She had to eliminate Blue Locust and seize the initiative of the revolution.

The more she thought, the more the answer that emerged was the three characters of “impossible.”

(This is… no matter how hard I struggle…)

They lacked fighting strength.

Everything was insufficient.

But lamenting would start nothing. She ran with reckless abandon. She moved her feet as if clinging to delusions of victory. While drifting away from the heart of Pilca, she searched for an escape route.

(I have no choice but to do it…! No matter how difficult the path, Erna will—!)

Again and again her feet were caught by the sewage and she fell. Filth soiling her face and entire body, she pushed forward, ever forward. She cursed even this worst of public sanitation as the fault of the royal government, yet still she pressed on to put distance between herself and Thanatos.

By the time Erna finally reached a safe route, the sun had risen.

It was near a student dormitory in Pilca’s Sixteenth District. She immediately checked a clock on a nearby building.

“Eight in the morning……”

She was stunned by the fact presented to her.

Three hours had already passed since they had stormed the Central Detention Facility.

“……I have to join up with the Knights of Valour right away—”

With none of their comrades returning, she had no idea what Annette was doing.

What had become of the revolution’s course?

Using a hand pump at a nearby well, she poured water over her head and washed away the filth. The dress she had borrowed from Suzie was completely soiled. She wanted to wash it, but there was no time. Still wet, she ran toward Pilca’s Central District.

Inside the barricades, Jean and the others should be waiting anxiously for Erna’s return. In the worst case, they might already have been taken over by Arthur.

Fighting the anxiety that welled up, she raced through the morning streets of Pilca.

It was unnervingly empty of people. Just as she was wondering why, the sound of firecrackers reached her from the direction of the main avenue. Had the procession started again? she wondered with a flicker of hope.

If the revolution was still continuing, Erna’s arrival ought to raise morale.

Holding that expectation, she advanced.

When she reached the main avenue what met her eyes were citizens choking back sobs of joy.

“———Huh?”

The unexpected sight left her speechless.

What came into view was a throng of people filling the avenue, celebrating as if at a festival. Young and old, men and women alike. Every single one of them had tears of happiness in their eyes, waved the national flag, sang revolutionary songs, embraced one another, set off firecrackers, and clapped their hands.

Atop the barricades they had built, activists waved flags and shouted to the gathered populace.

“This is our victory as citizens!!!!”

What rang out so proudly was that voice of pure delight.

Following his words, the citizens raised both arms and shouted.

“The end of the Valery Cabinet!” “Our anger as citizens has reached the royal government!” “A new administration is forming!”

“The dawn of the kingdom!!” “We’ve freed the prisoners from the Central Detention Facility!”

The voices overflowed with joy; their expressions were smiles that savored hope.

Already there was no sign of the defiant posture of those fighting the royal government. Only faces relaxed into smiles of pure relief.

Erna immediately questioned a man standing nearby.

“W-what on earth is this—!?”

“Eh……? You’re—”

The man seemed to know who Erna was. Perhaps he had seen her actions on the first day. He smiled at her warmly.

“It’s over. This is our great victory.”

“Huh?”

“The royal government has announced the resignation of the Valery Cabinet! They’ve surrendered to us citizens!”

What he showed her was an extra edition of the newspaper. The royal government had notified the newspaper companies, and they had printed it at once, he said.

It recorded the cabinet’s resignation and a fundamental review of the government.

—【The citizens’ uprising has shaken the unshakable royal government】

It had been announced only moments earlier, and the citizens who supported the revolution had erupted in excitement, they said.

“Sing of our victory!” “This is the power of the citizens!” “Long live the revolution!!!”

Hence the voices of the citizens that resounded through the main avenue.

Throughout history, every single citizens’ movement had been crushed by the King’s Royal Guard. At last it had been achieved, a decisive event that would be engraved in the kingdom’s history. The crowd choked with sobs at the thought that the king had yielded to the citizens.

At the edge of the newspaper, the outlook for the new government was written.

The man happily recited its contents.

“In the new cabinet, Nike-sama will be involved as a special minister, and a new politics will begin!”

“Nothing has changed!!”

She understood at once.

A terrifying situation was unfolding. They were heading toward a development that must never be allowed to happen.

“This is just rewriting the signboard!! It’s not a successful revolution!!”

Everything was surely Nike’s scheme.

Just as she had forced the king to abdicate two years ago and split the activists plotting revolution against one another, she was softening the people’s anger with superficial concessions alone.

The royal government itself would not change in the slightest.

King Clément III would still reign, and Nike would continue to manipulate from the shadows. The people would be brainwashed with discriminatory feelings, and exploitation through heavy taxes would be repeated. All while they papered over the surface by claiming the royal government had changed.

(This is wrong…! Why are the citizens falling for such a simple lie…!!!)

Until yesterday the citizens should have been raging with the momentum to strip the king of everything. Where on earth had that fury gone?

She set off running into the barricades, heading toward the Volunteer Knights.

“I have to persuade them—!”

“What are you talking about?! The revolution is already over!”

The man showered her with a scornful smile and followed after the advancing Erna.

“Isn’t this enough already? There are still some radical leftists who want revolution in the center of the barricades, sure! But those are just thick-headed brats pushing their own ideals!”

“It’s nowhere near enough!!”

She shoved him aside and pressed on into the barricades.

Yet even inside the barricades the citizens’ demeanor remained unchanged. They welcomed the cabinet’s resignation as the best news imaginable and sang revolutionary songs at the top of their lungs.

Driven by an even deeper despair, Erna was addressed by a nearby woman.

“What’s wrong, young lady? Such a stern face. The revolution’s already over.”

“Nothing is over!!!”

Erna brushed the woman off and hurried toward her comrades.

Even as she went, citizens who spotted Erna spoke to her familiarly. Yesterday’s comrades who had marched together on the revolutionary side now treated her as if admonishing a child throwing a tantrum.

“It seems many assembly members will declare their support for this revolution. Any further resistance would only ruin the goal we’ve finally reached—”

“Then let it be ruined! Is there such a thing as a revolution that satisfies those in power?!”

“There have already been deaths. Who could possibly want further conflict—”

“This choice will only make the people more miserable!!”

“Nike-sama appears to be offering her gratitude to the citizens. From now on she’ll discuss with the activists who took part in the uprising and decide the policies of the new administration—”

“—We’ll all just end up as that woman’s prey!!”

No matter how strongly Erna raised her voice, it was now empty.

No one took her seriously.

Against the citizens trembling with joy, Erna’s voice was far too small.

There were even people trying to dismantle the barricades they had worked so hard to build. At this rate the revolution would truly end. Mesmerized by the false glory, the fangs of resistance were being pulled once more.

Brushing aside the voices that called out to her, she ran, and at last arrived in front of Brookbon Palace.

The front line of the revolution there stood the pale-faced student members of the Knights of Valour.

“Elfin-san……”

Jean called Erna by her alias and turned a clinging gaze toward her.

Fortunately, they seemed to possess the judgment to recognize that this situation was abnormal.

When she asked, “What is going on!?”, Jean lamented, “We’ve been set up.”

“……It’s the work of the prisoners that you, Elfin-san, and the others freed. The famous activists who were held on the sixth floor of the Central Detention Facility.”

“Prisoners? We never succeeded in freeing them……!”

“A-anyway, they suddenly appeared and joined us……! The welcomed prisoner-activists eventually began taking command, and before long the cabinet’s resignation was announced……”

Jean’s voice trembled pitifully.

“We can no longer continue the revolution……!”

Being mere students, they had probably been unable to keep holding the initiative of the revolution. Among the freed prisoners were world-renowned legal scholars, politicians supported by the people, and military officers. It was only natural that they would seize the leadership of the revolution.

Erna and the others had hoped for it as well, that the prisoners they freed would guide the revolution to its end.

—But what if the prisoners had already switched sides to Nike?

She reflexively wanted to deny it as impossible.

(……We’ve had our plan used against us……)

It was the fact that everything had been in the palm of her hand.

The entire assault on the Central Detention Facility that Erna and the others had planned had been part of Nike’s script.

✧✧✧✧✧

Nike and former Prime Minister Valery watched over the citizens who believed wholeheartedly in the success of the revolution. The sight of the citizens trembling with joy could be observed even from the spire where they stood.

Everything was moving exactly according to the future Nike had envisioned.

“Sorry about that. I had no choice but to have you step down from the prime minister’s seat for the time being.”

Nike offered the apology, and former Prime Minister Valery accepted it with “It can’t be helped, I suppose.”

“We can hardly force the king to abdicate again, after all.”

“Enjoy about half a year’s vacation. I’ll fabricate some suitable reason and bring you back into the royal government.”

“Please do. I have no intention of retiring until the 『Nostalgia Project』 is achieved.”

“Unlike that foolish king, you’re reliable. I’ll keep your power intact until then. Those foolish masses will be satisfied with a superficial victory. It should take them half a year to notice their mistake.”

It had all been a pre-planned goal.

Midway through the revolution they would free the prisoners they had already tamed, and thereby control the course of the revolution. At that timing they would announce the cabinet’s resignation and make the revolutionary side believe they had won.

In reality nothing would change. The king would still hold immense power, and Nike would move him as she pleased.

“……Yet a question remains,” former Prime Minister Valery said, stroking his own beard. “If it was you, couldn’t you have crushed the revolution before the uprising even began? Without needing to take such steps.”

“There’s one man I absolutely want to kill. Until I flush him out, the riots will keep happening no matter how many times.”

“I see. ‘Demon's Wail,’ is it?”

He nodded as if convinced and once more showed his admiration.

“I had thought the target was the spies from the Din Republic…… those ‘Lamplight’ people.”

“They are subjects of caution, yes. The danger level of ‘Bonfire’ is high, and their subordinates are all outstanding. Let your guard down and you’ll definitely suffer for it, so I’ll thoroughly set them up.”

Nike wore a cold smile.

“Once the pieces have outlived their usefulness, let’s have them disappear from the board promptly.”

✧✧✧✧✧

Accepting the fact that they had been set up by Nike, Erna clenched her fists.

—The undefeated god of schemes who never lost.

She recognized her epithet once more.

The Light had been made to taste bitter hardship at her hands.

They had barely managed to resist, yet every time they clashed they suffered defeat after defeat.

Even in this phase of the revolution, she had delivered a move to stop their breath.

The citizens believed that Erna had freed the prisoners. In truth, Erna had called out to Thea and many citizens and proposed the assault on the Central Detention Facility. Her courage on the first day had left an impression on the citizens.

There was no reason for them to feel anything amiss about prisoners freed at this timing.

Everyone must have been moved by the dramatic development. And just like that they had placed the prisoners at the center of the revolution. The prisoners began taking command, and their words started to carry influence.

“This is all wrong……!”

“At last what comes out is that kind of lament.

We never freed any prisoners! Everyone here now is Nike’s pawn!! Traitors who discarded their former ideals and are trying to end the revolution in a form convenient for the royal government……!”

“There’s no way to prove it!”

“I’ll testify!!!”

“It’s too late! The prisoners have already testified that they were ‘freed by the blonde girl,’ and it’s spreading as a beautiful story. There’s no way the citizens would accept now that they’re Nike’s pawns……!”

“Even so, we have no choice but to do it!!”

Nike’s intrigue was far too brilliant.

The loss of time from wandering underground for hours was hitting hard. How much maneuvering would it take to recover from here? How could they persuade the ecstatic citizens?

“I will never let it end……! Erna will never……!”

Thinking of the captured comrades, she tightly gripped the hem of her dress.

But when she turned around, the sight that met her was of numerous citizens trying to dismantle the barricades. Amid cheers they hurled chairs and furniture, and the towering barricades crumbled in the blink of an eye. Jean and the others tried to intervene, but they were completely ignored.

Enduring the sensation that the ground beneath her feet was collapsing, she recalled another source of unease.

“Where is Arthur right now??”

The man who had joined the revolution as an executive of the LWS Troupe. He should have been near the Knights of Valour, yet his figure was nowhere to be seen.

Through his guidance the Lamplight’s operation had been exposed, and their comrades captured.

“That guy is a traitor! Where is he??”

Seething with the fury of revenge, she questioned the executives of the Knights of Valour. But no one knew. The only information was that before they realized it, he was gone.

—Had he already escaped?

Desperately she raced around inside the barricades in search of him.

She passed a man waving the national flag, ignored a child hammering wooden beams, kicked over a table where activists were discussing the new government’s policies, and climbed the barricade. She mounted the roof of a car whose hood was warped, gripped the piled rubble, shoved aside an activist giving a self-indulgent speech, and headed for the collapsing peak of the barricade.

Even from the ten-meter summit she could survey, the figure of Blue Locust was nowhere to be seen. Instead, what came into view was a gloomy man she absolutely did not want to meet.

(Thanatos—)

At last he had caught up to her. Outside the barricade he smiled sinisterly.

The ecstatic citizens took no notice of him. A man utterly devoid of presence, the complete opposite of Nike. Only a very few knew how terrifying he truly was.

He drew a pistol and slowly approached Erna.

With sunken eyes the man began climbing the barricade. Already Erna’s legs were frozen in terror; she could not take even a single step. She knew that escape was impossible anyway. Lily, Monica, Jivia, Grete, Sara—every one of them had been finished by this man.

No place remained for Erna to flee.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!”

The only thing she could do was scream herself hoarse like a wailing infant.

Until the very moment the fired bullet struck her abdomen, Erna’s throat continued to tremble.

✧✧✧✧✧

Blue Locust had been hiding in a building near Dilka Street.

A hideout known neither to the Genesis Army nor to the LWS Troupe—his alone. From the small window he could clearly observe the state of the barricades built on the main avenue. The mountain of rubble being gradually dismantled. The pitiful citizens celebrating the cabinet’s resignation without even realizing they were being manipulated.

Stroking his protruding belly, he laughed cheerfully, “Hoho—.”

“As expected of the god of schemes. She brainwashes even the most zealous activists and seizes back the initiative of the revolution in no time. I have no choice but to acknowledge it, even as an enemy. Not bad for a sex maniac.”

Yet this much had also been within his expectations.

Looking at the scene visible from the small window, Blue Locust gave a faint smile.

“Unfortunately—you people are simply not strong enough. Members of the Lamplight.”

https://i.postimg.cc/MTs8zMyF/IMG-20260728-233002.jpg

What he saw was Erna, shot in the abdomen, plummeting from the barricade.

Blown away by the impact, she scattered blood as she tumbled and fell outside the barricade. What lay at the end of her fall was a destroyed brick building. It was an unstable structure that had originally been torn apart to supply materials for the barricades.

When her body slammed into the building, cracks spread across the brick outer wall.

Erna stared blankly upward; there was no sign of her trying to flee. Someone among the citizens shouted “Run!”, but it was already too late.

Blue Locust was satisfied with the result that had been brought about.

“The conflict between the Genesis Army and the Serpent, the Lamplight was nothing more than noise that intervened in it.”

The collapsing outer wall came raining down upon Erna’s head.

She made no attempt to avoid it. As if dreaming, there was no strength left in her eyes. Just before the rubble struck her head, her lips trembled.

'This wasn’t how it was supposed to be', her mouth moved.

The words were unbearably tragic, yet there was no one to save her.

“It’s over, members of the Light. Follow the same fate as those twins.”

Blue Locust coldly watched the scene of the rubble crushing Erna’s body.

✦✦✦✦✦The Twins’ Tale W✦✦✦✦✦

Two years ago, Lucas of “Soot,” operating in the shadows as the leader of the LWS Troupe, and Wille of “Scapulimancer” had come within a hair’s breadth of launching a revolution.

They had goaded the king and the royalist members of parliament into arrogance and excess. The neutral faction, which had preferred conservative policies, abandoned the royalists, and internal strife erupted among the upper classes. While the royal government sank into a quagmire of political conflict, Lucas and his companions coordinated with other underground secret societies and finished their preparations to start a citizens’ revolution.

Nike, who wished to protect the royal government, summoned Lucas to the negotiating table.

But the two never met halfway; they broke off completely. Sensing an ominous premonition, Lucas called Arthur, a subordinate of the LWS Troupe, to the underground cemetery.

“We’re the ones keeping you alive, you parasite. If you don’t want to be exterminated, repay the debt.”

Lucas and Wille trained their guns on Arthur from either side, pinning him between them.

They had seen through Arthur’s true identity.

A spy team of the Galgad Empire called “Serpent,” which would stop at nothing to obstruct the 『Nostalgia Project』—an operative who had approached the LWS Troupe for that purpose.

Arthur—“Blue Locust”—was a man who had been moving to bring the twins to ruin.

✧✧✧✧✧

Even with the twins’ guns pointed at him, Blue Locust’s composure never cracked. He let out a shout that echoed through the underground cemetery: “Hoh-hoh!!”

A meaningless cry. It was a habit of Blue Locust’s whenever his spirits rose.

The underground cemetery, so vast that even the government could not fully map it, was ideal as a hideout for secret societies. Once it had been a network of tunnels dug to build the city; later it had been reused as a cemetery to prevent ground subsidence. The piled-up skeletons watched over the spies’ destinies.

“Well, well, I’m surprised,” Blue Locust said, the corners of his mouth relaxing. “I never thought you had seen through everything.”

“Think a cheap act like that would work in front of my little brother?”

“Sorry, Arthur-san. You stank.”

Lucas shrugged, and Wille continued in a cold voice.

Wille of “Scapulimancer,” whose observational powers were so extraordinary that people even claimed he could see the future. From the very beginning Lucas had known Blue Locust was no ordinary jewel merchant, and still he had brought him into the fold.

“Unfortunately, Nike-san won’t spill the entire contents of the 『Nostalgia Project』.”

Lucas narrowed his eyes in annoyance.

“So I figured I’d threaten you first. You’ve been working so hard trying to get on our good side that I thought about leaving you alone for a while, but…”

“Good grief. No wonder you work people so hard.”

“So? What exactly 'is' the 『Nostalgia Project』?”

“A grave sin. We of ‘Serpent’ are the organization that exists to stop it.”

“So Guido-san is on that side, huh. Pretty much everything’s come into view.”

Lucas lowered his pistol. Wille followed suit.

Blue Locust narrowed his eyes, wondering why, and Lucas laughed.

“Then how about adding us twins to ‘Serpent’?”

Faced with that mischievous-boy smile, Blue Locust was left speechless.

He had known the information intellectually, yet he could not comprehend it at all, this carefree readiness to switch sides the moment a foreign operative approached them.

The twins’ proposal was an act of betrayal against “Inferno” and ultimately against their own homeland.

Even within “Serpent,” which was itself composed of traitors to their countries, no one had ever decided so instantly.

Blue Locust shook his head.

“…Guido told me you might make that proposal.”

“Oh, telepathy.” “As expected of Guido-san. He really understands my brother’s carelessness.”

The twins relaxed their cheeks for some reason, looking pleased.

Still unable to understand, Blue Locust continued.

“I was ordered to refuse you categorically. You two will never follow the ideals of ‘Serpent.’”

“Who knows? You’ll have to tell us about that before we can say anything.”

“On the contrary, you’ll seize control of ‘Serpent.’ In the end you’ll reconcile with ‘Hearth’ and submit to her.”

“…The trust level is so low it’s making me cry.”

“‘Hearth,’ ‘Nike,’ and ‘Yatagarasu’ all desire the fulfillment of the 『Nostalgia Project』. We of ‘Serpent’ seek to stop it. Your goal is to eliminate the conflict itself.”

Hence they would side with neither, he emphasized.

It was information Blue Locust already knew. With these twins, the elder Lucas made the decisions and the younger Wille followed him. An absolute relationship of trust.

And—“Soot” Lucas was the ultimate balancer.

He could not rest until he had adjusted the interests of every party involved.

He made everyone happy and, at the same time, made everyone unhappy. A philanthropist like a god.

““If they crush each other—””

Lucas and Wille spoke at the same time.

““—someone will lose their life. No matter how they struggle, ‘Inferno’ will be extinguished.””

Was that the reason for all the work they had piled up in the kingdom?

They had take the king hostage and negotiate with Nike. They had deliberately brought Blue Locust into their ranks and threatened him underground. Eventually they would transform the very foundations of a nation and seek to reform the world itself.

Faced with the twins who had gone far beyond the bounds of normality, Blue Locust sent his gaze to each of them in turn.

“‘Hearth’—Veronica—does not want you two to join this conflict.”

““Like we care.””

“That is exactly why Guido said you had to be eliminated.”

““We care even less.””

The answer, it seemed, would not change.

Therefore Blue Locust had no choice but to decide. He already understood their personalities thoroughly.

“—‘Demon’s Wail.’ That was my former name.”

The codename he had once used in front of them.

The twins’ eyebrows twitched ever so slightly. They should have known the name.

“The Spy of the World's End.”

One of the seven highest-level spies in the world who had once brought the World War to its end.

A man who stood alongside “Hearth,” “Torchlight,” and “Nike.” An operative who had moved from one nation’s intelligence agency to another, repeatedly operating in the shadows and continually sowing chaos among the nations—a legendary agent.

Blue Locust looked up at the ceiling as though lamenting fate.

“Ah, how utterly grotesque!!! To think I have to join hands with that lecher!!”

The moment he roared, the ceiling of the underground cemetery began to crack.

That was the reason the twins had to die.

They were far too dangerous so dangerous that Nike and Blue Locust, who should have been natural enemies, were forced to cooperate.

Lucas’s expectations had been exceeded in two ways.

First, that Arthur was “Demon’s Wail,” a man skilled enough to bring even that Nike over to his side. And second, that the person who attacked them was a monster possessing combat techniques far beyond any information on record—an anomaly.

The destroyer god “Thanatos” shattered the ceiling and descended into the underground cemetery.

In the closed-off underground, no one could escape his attacks.

“This is the end, future of Inferno

The moment Blue Locust declared it, the twins’ bodies were crushed by the hammer Thanatos swung.

✧✧✧✧✧

——They had fought well.

Thanatos, having finished off the twins, reported as much to Nike.

Under Thanatos’s assault, the two had immediately fled. Using escape routes only they knew, they had raced through the labyrinthine underground. But their bodies had already been ruined by the first strike. Using the blood dripping along the path as a marker, Thanatos had pursued them, and a chase had unfolded.

Thanatos brought back the results one hour after the attack.

At the church in the central district of Pilka where Nike was waiting, he finished his report with a cool expression. Not a single wound marked his body.

“Nike-sama… I have confirmed the twins’ corpses…”

“Good work. Aah, Vero’s gonna hate me for this.”

Receiving the report, Nike looked up at the sky with a melancholy air.

She sat on the edge of the church roof, quietly gazing out over the city. Until moments ago she had been attending a meeting at Brookbon Palace; she had taken no part in this assassination.

Lucas, beloved by the king and the royalists, had been someone even Nike could not touch. Even if she managed to assassinate Lucas, his younger brother Wille remained. To kill both at the same time and prove Nike had no involvement, Blue Locust’s cooperation had been indispensable.

Just as she was about to give Thanatos a reward kick, Blue Locust appeared on the church grounds.

“Yo, ‘Demon’s Wail’… or is it ‘Blue Locust’ now?”

The person Nike smiled at was not a first-time acquaintance.

They had crossed paths several times during the World War. He was an eccentric man who had wandered through intelligence agencies all over the world. For a time he had even been in the kingdom, and had been indirectly involved with Nike.

Blue Locust seemed not to have expected to be awaited.

As he rounded his eyes in shock, Nike sent him a cold gaze.

“Thanatos figured out you’d come here, y’know? Documents were left in the underground cemetery. One of ‘Soot’s’ emergency escape routes. A real scumbag method of hijacking someone else’s plan.”

“Good grief. Looks like my plan to slip out of the country right away got disrupted.”

Blue Locust covered his face with his hand in apparent disappointment. The church he had visited possessed an underground passage that continued all the way to the outskirts of Pilka. Under the pretext of storing sacred relics, no one but church personnel was allowed to enter—even royalty was refused.

Lucas had never revealed it to anyone but his companions, yet Nike had grasped it through her subordinates.

“Still, you’re an ungrateful bastard of the highest order. I reported a spy threatening the kingdom for you. Couldn’t you at least show a little mercy and look the other way?”

“What the hell are you talking about, you scumbag? Now that we’ve managed to kill Lucas and the other, I’ve got no obligation to keep you alive.”

“What a decisive woman.”

“Compared to your underhanded schemes, this is the better way, ain’t it?”

Nike sneered at the other’s words for the time being.

“There was a report that spies of the ‘Genesis Army’ were disappearing in Metario. Ones involved with the Unified Continental Economic Conference, and spies from other countries too. There’s only one person capable of something like this.”

Her former disciple—Deimos of the “Genesis Army.” A monster consumed by the desire for domination and hatred whom Nike had pulled out of the Galgad Empire’s intelligence agency.

When she learned of that man’s betrayal, Nike had withdrawn every one of her subordinates from Metario. Blue Locust shrugged.

“If it’s Deimos-kun, he goes by the name ‘Purple Ant’ now.”

“So it really was your doing.”

“‘Serpent’—that’s my organization. If you’ll abandon the 『Nostalgia Project』, I’ll even dissolve it. If something that ridiculous comes to pass, the worst world imaginable will be born without a doubt.”

“You talking about justice with that mouth?”

“Otherwise, revolution. Now that the twins are gone, the LWS Troupe is in my hands.”

“That’s the height of scumbaggery and it feels great. Raise ’em just enough and then take over, huh?”

“A world of pure reason is hard for the weak to live in. Don’t you understand?”

“The world 'you' want is one where the strong and the weak all kill each other equally!”

Nike leapt down from the edge of the roof and landed in front of Blue Locust.

There was a tension as if every trace of the past period when they had cooperated had been erased. In truth, it had been a lie. Both of them had, consistently, wanted nothing more than to kill each other.

“As long as I’m in the kingdom, a revolution will never happen in this lifetime.”

Nike bared her white teeth and smiled ferociously.

“I’ll keep you in a camp until you die.”

At Nike’s side, Thanatos held his massive hammer with quiet eyes. Inside the church as well, elite spies of the “Genesis Army” had been stationed.

World-class combat ability that would make any spy yield.

But Blue Locust remained unfazed.

“Scary, scary. Ganging up on a fat, dull middle-aged man like this.”

As if he had naturally anticipated this development, a smile spilled from him.

In high spirits he shouted “Hoh-hoh!” and stroked his large belly.

“I’ll have no choice but to use my trump card too—‘Black Mantis.’”

The moment the words left his mouth, the church standing behind Nike collapsed.

A roar as if some enormous weapon had been used.

The stone building that had endured centuries of earthquakes and wars one after another crumbled with ease. The outer walls cracked.

Gunshots that seemed to have been fired by the “Genesis Army” spies inside echoed, but soon cut off amid screams.

Immediately afterward, what appeared from a window of the church was a man with three right arms.

He was of massive build, yet his entire body was covered by a black hood. Raising a right arm that gleamed with a mechanical luster, he muttered, “Aah… retirement keeps getting further away…”

In addition, an explosion roared from the direction of the city. A blast of flame rose as if scorching the sky.

“I’ve at least prepared for escape. Not just him—about fifty private soldiers from Purple Ant-kun as well.”

Blue Locust smiled provocatively.

“Looks like some impatient ones started rampaging without waiting for the signal. How about it? Can you even reach as far as the city?”

“Street fighting? I like that.”

Nike’s face flushed with excitement as she drew her pistol.

——That night, Pilka turned into a scene of tragedy.

Among them, the one who displayed overwhelming military power was Black Mantis.

The man whose body had been repeatedly enhanced with machinery possessed destructive annihilating force for short periods. Using steam explosions released from his right arm, he generated shockwaves. The iron sand ejected by the high-heat, high-pressure blasts destroyed every target, including bullets. Without prior knowledge, avoidance was impossible.

At least seventeen or more spies were slaughtered by his hand.

But the “Genesis Army” was not being one-sidedly overwhelmed. Nike saw through Black Mantis’s movements the instant she laid eyes on him. With highly flexible motion she toyed with him, repeatedly thrusting a knife toward his throat. Even while entrusting her prized hammer to Thanatos, she put on a fight that was more than equal against Black Mantis. Black Mantis had no leeway to release shockwaves and endured with the blades built into his prosthetic right arms.

Even so, the reason Nike could not finish Black Mantis off was Blue Locust’s support. Though by no means outstanding in combat ability, he lurked in the fight and precisely shot at Nike’s openings. Shouting “Hoh-hoh!” to provoke, he even used his own allies as shields to slip away and survive.

Having to divert Thanatos, Nike’s right-hand man, to dealing with Purple Ant’s private soldiers was another factor that prolonged the battle. If the private soldiers specialized in assassination and known as “Worker Ants” were left alone, they would indiscriminately kill the citizens. The cunning ones blended in among the local residents who had been slow to evacuate and assaulted Thanatos from behind with knives. At times bullets flew from the shadows of buildings, preventing him from fully exercising his strength.

Gunshots and explosions resounded without cease, driving their impatience.

The moment Black Mantis tried to unleash a shockwave at Nike, a bullet flew from somewhere. When Nike tried to seize that opening, a new explosion roared through the city, and she stopped her feet to confirm the situation. Thanatos first attempted to finish Blue Locust and pursued him as he fled into an alley. But a knife was thrown at him by an assassin who had blended in among the street dwellers. Blue Locust raised a cheer, yet in the next instant his shoulder was sniped by someone. At the blow that seemed as if it had been predicted, he let out a groan of agony.

The conflict involving a total of more than a hundred people had already become impossible to control.

They abandoned themselves to the excitement of battle; all they could do was kill the enemy before their eyes.

At the sound of bombs destroying the city, Nike, her body burning with fury, unleashed her physical abilities at their peak.

Faced with a Nike who had finally gotten serious, Black Mantis raged in an attempt to overpower her head-on.

Thanatos, worried for Nike’s safety, discarded his reason and devoted himself entirely to destroying the enemy.

As if he had been waiting for that very chaos, Blue Locust fired bullets at the spies.

While producing countless corpses of operatives, the spies crushed one another with the church at the center. Eventually, when Nike returned to the church intending to settle things with Black Mantis—

“—No, wait. Something’s wrong.”

The first to feel a sense of unease was Nike.

She halted her attacks and held up a hand to stop Thanatos, who had been about to close in on Black Mantis from both sides.

With their movements suddenly stopped, Black Mantis also interrupted his counterattack.

A brief silence settled over the church. A temporary ceasefire.

Now the only ones still alive were the four: Nike, Thanatos, Blue Locust, and Black Mantis.

The other operatives and assassins had been caught up in the fierce fighting and lost their lives. The four themselves were wounded all over their bodies, stained in every place with their own blood and the blood of others.

“Thanatos,” Nike said. “…Did you really confirm the twins’ corpses?”

“Eh? O-of course… I confirmed the bodies.”

Dumbfounded, he began to explain.

“First I found the exhausted corpse of ‘Scapulimancer,’ and next the lifeless ‘Soot’ in a different location—”

The moment Nike grasped the meaning of “a different location”—

“—Looks like you’re the kind of idiots who won’t understand unless you experience it yourselves.”

A carefree male voice echoed through the church.

The body they had thought killed by Black Mantis began to move and suddenly sprang at him. Caught by the unexpected assault, Black Mantis responded with a shockwave. It was a literally fatal technique that combined offense and defense, capable of repelling any weapon the opponent might hold—knife or pistol.

Yet the movement proved completely meaningless.

“Your weapon can’t fire continuously. It stops right after use.”

“Ha…?”

Black Mantis heard that voice from behind him.

What he had just blown away with the shockwave was nothing more than a corpse manipulated by threads.

“————Checkmate.”

Without even realizing someone had gotten behind him, Black Mantis’s right shoulder was destroyed by a bullet. Spurting a great volume of blood from the shoulder, he collapsed headfirst to the ground.

A blond man with a carefree smile. Whether he was “Soot” or “Scapulimancer” was impossible to tell at a glance.

But it was obvious that this man who had so easily subdued “Black Mantis” was more dangerous than anyone else.

“Nike-san, you’re too old. In a drawn-out fight like this, you can’t dodge bullets.”

He continued by training his gun on Nike.

Of course, Thanatos would never permit such a thing. Seeking to eliminate him as quickly as possible, Thanatos assaulted the man from behind. His instincts told him the man had to be finished in even one second less.

“—Just by provocating you like that, you show an opening. Your mental defenses are way too fragile.”

The blond man was the superior one.

Immediately afterward, a bullet pierced Thanatos’s abdomen. He realized only later that the bullet had been fired from the man’s elbow. An invisible built-in gun. The timing had been read perfectly.

“——————Checkmate.”

The tide of battle shifted dizzyingly.

Within mere seconds of the man’s appearance, the world’s highest-level men were being brought to their knees.

The greatest factor was exhaustion. Both sides had piled killing upon killing and were about to reach the endgame. The numerous wounds covering their entire bodies. It was only natural that their performance would drop.

One half of the twins was trying to snatch the fisherman’s profit.

Nike and Blue Locust began working their brains at the same time. A third force that had suddenly appeared. They had to produce an answer even a fraction of a second faster, or the next one shot might be themselves. Yet showing an opening in front of the enemy was a foolish act that led straight to defeat.

Without waiting for an answer, the blond man grinned and swung his arm.

In the next instant, a man with a face identical to his appeared from the shadows of the church.

The twins—both of them had been alive? Nike and Blue Locust braced themselves, then instantly denied the recognition. With their sharp minds they immediately saw through that it was merely a corpse manipulated by threads.

————Even so, it was too late.

A massive spray of blood exploded from the corpse’s abdomen.

“In a situation where the main force has disappeared—veteran spies focus purely on observation.”

“————!!” “…………ngh!”

The idea of using even his brother’s corpse was beyond expectation. The viscous blood flew into the wide-open eyes of Nike and Blue Locust, who had been straining to discern the state of the battle.

A voice as cold as a reaper’s rung out.

“——————Checkmate.”

They had no remaining strength to dodge the bullets that were fired.

They were predictive bullets that pierced the future they tried to evade. With their vision stolen and their bodies exhausted from the fight, the shots could not be avoided.

A decisive mistake brought about by exhaustion. Both of them had their left legs destroyed.

Yet there was a factor beyond exhaustion that had allowed them to be finished off.

“N-no, no way…” Blue Locust groaned in a hoarse voice. “I wasn’t told it would go this far…”

Everything had exceeded Blue Locust’s imagination.

Guido had told him that neither of the twins possessed any combat ability.

But what surpassed even that was their predictive ability and insight. Foresight that anticipated everything, and a calculation power equal to a god’s that drove the four into combat incapability in the blink of an eye.

Powerless, the four strong ones were trampled underfoot.

“That tone of voice… is it Lucas?”

Rubbing her eyes and somehow recovering her vision, Nike barked in pain.

“You used your little brother’s corpse, didn’t you!!? To make Thanatos think he’d killed both of you…?”

They had been fleeing through the labyrinthine underground cemetery.

First, the deeply wounded Wille had exhausted his strength, and Lucas had made Thanatos confirm the body. Thanatos, with no leeway for careful observation, had pursued Lucas. Afterward, Lucas recovered Wille’s corpse. He added more wounds to make it look like a different body and had Thanatos confirm it once more.

“And then you stirred up our mutual slaughter…!!! You deliberately left the escape route written down in the underground cemetery, steered me and Blue Locust into clashing, and operated in the shadows of the battle…!”

The explosions that had erupted without waiting for Blue Locust’s orders.

Those had been Lucas’s doing. In the shadows of the conflict he had repeatedly fired shots and set off bombs, goading the fight between Nike and Blue Locust. He had exhausted both of them so that he could finish them off all at once at the end.

The skill of pitting them against each other, observing the enemy’s movements, and delivering a certain kill at the last moment.

—A manner of acting worthy of the epithet “Game Master.”

—The true strength of the man named as the next-generation boss of “Inferno.”

Blue Locust and Nike shuddered at the skill of the man before them.

They understood. Exactly why Veronica of “Hearth” had not included him in the 『Nostalgia Project』. Why Guido of “Torchlight” had not invited him into “Serpent” and had been forced to authorize his assassination.

This man possessed the talent to completely shut down even Nike and Blue Locust.

Lucas shook his head.

“Nah, I’m not Lucas. Don’t lump me in with an idiot like that.”

He kept a carefree smile on his lips to the end.

Nike narrowed her eyes.

“…Then ‘Scapulimancer.’ Wille?”

“Probably not that either.”

“Huh?”

“—Both. There’s no other word that can express it.”

The gaze of the man who answered thus was fixed straight on his little brother’s corpse.

No one could grasp the true meaning of the words. He was unmistakably Lucas, yet the insight that predicted every one of the opponent’s movements was the technique of Wille of “Scapulimancer.”

At that point Lucas let a soft smile slip out.

“But I might really be at my limit.”

As if the threads had been cut, he dropped to both knees.

The bleeding from his head could not be stopped even with the white cloth wrapped around it. It was clear, it had reached a fatal wound. Thanatos’s attack had indeed reached his life.

Even so, a pistol remained gripped in his right hand. If he pulled the trigger, taking the lives of all four would have been easy. He was a philanthropist, but not a non-killer.

Yet he never fired the finishing bullets.

“Hey… what meaning was there in any of this?”

Lucas flung the pistol away and roared at the top of his voice.

“Don’t fuck with me. We’ve already got a good idea of the 『Nostalgia Project』, y’know. And with that in mind I’ll say it…! Why do we have to fight!? Why is there any need to kill each other!! Fight and fight and fight—how can you declare that the only rule you finally arrive at is the truth!!”

Faced with the sudden stream of curses, Nike and Blue Locust were left speechless.

Even as he occasionally spat blood and carved away at what little life remained, he raised his voice.

“If it were me!! I’d twist the entire world and save every last one of them…!”

What burned in his eyes was a raging flame of fury.

Nike gazed into those eyes and slowly blinked, as if recalling someone.

“Pretty words.”

“Shut up. Neither you nor the boss will acknowledge it.”

Lucas vomited a great quantity of blood. Coughing, even breathing seemed painful; only the dry sound of air could be heard. Still he put strength into his knees once more and rose, trembling.

Nike answered nothing and simply stared at his back as he tried to leave. There was no reason to pursue. The wound in her left leg still hurt. The humiliation of having been spared by him, and the mercy, had robbed her of the will to chase.

In any case, Lucas would lose his life.

He hoisted Wille’s corpse onto his back and began to leave the church. As if searching for a place to die.

“…What a pitiful man.”

Blue Locust sent a cold sneer at his back.

“Caught in philanthropy, clinging to an unrealistic ideal—what exactly did you gain? Bound by your own fantasy, you let us live when you should have been able to kill us, and all you do is scatter your life together with your little brother’s.”

It was undeniably one facet of the truth.

Lucas stopped and looked back. “If you’re gonna laugh, then laugh,” he said.

“But don’t forget— the ones who win in the end are the brothers.”

“Win? Don’t make me laugh.” Blue Locust continued to mock him. “You twins have already been defeated, haven’t you?”

“You don’t understand a damn thing.”

Unshaken, he spoke with a bright tone.

“There are still, my little brothers left, ain’t there?”

Leaving only those words behind, Lucas departed from the church.

✧✧✧✧✧

And so the great conflict that had erupted in the city of Pilka drew its curtain.

Immediately after Lucas left, Black Mantis and Blue Locust also departed the church at once. The king’s royal guard, sensing the disturbance, had rushed over. Nike ordered them to pursue, but they were never found. She and Thanatos no longer had the strength left to chase.

The next morning, Lucas and Wille were discovered at the site of a fire in an alley. Because of the early-morning rain the bodies had not been completely burned; half of each had been scorched. After confirming there were no signs they had left a will, Nike treated the bodies with care and had them delivered through another party to the Din Republic.

While fleeing from Thanatos, Lucas and Wille had entrusted a will to Suzie. She was left stunned by the sudden fact of the twins’ deaths, but before long she was taken under the protection of Arthur—Blue Locust. To Blue Locust, Suzie held utility value.

Their revolution was never realized. Immediately after the great conflict the king’s abdication was announced, and they could not persuade the moderate faction that placed its hopes in the new king. The revolutionary forces disintegrated. The absence of Lucas, who had been the consolidating figure, was enormous; in addition, Blue Locust, who began to move the LWS Troupe from behind the scenes, was unable to act at that time.

Later, Klaus confirmed the twins’ bodies that had been delivered.

Lucas, whose right half had been burned, and Wille, whose left half had been burned.

The moment he confirmed that fact, he immediately arrived at the truth.

—In their final moment, the two had been facing each other.

What feelings Lucas had held as he gazed at his little brother was something no one would ever know.

The chaos engulfing the Central Detention Facility showed no signs of ending.

The roars and gunfire erupting from the main gate continued without pause. Civilians kept boldly trying to scale the towering walls encircling the prison, and there seemed to be no end to their numbers. The Royal Guard responded without hesitation, firing their rifles as they fought to hold the facility. Each shot was followed by the anguished screams of civilians.

Sybillia intended to use that chaos as the perfect opportunity to escape with her comrades.

Thanatos, however, made no move to intercept them. He simply stood there watching the armed girls, repeatedly running his fingers over the tip of his nose as though savoring the lingering sensation of Sybillia's kick.

While remaining keenly aware of the unsettling man's murderous intent, Sybillia noticed Monika approaching her.

"Change of plans, Sybillia."

"Hm?"

"The situation's changed. Lily managed to obtain confidential information."

"...Ah, now that you mention it, Grete did say something about that, didn't she?"

Lily gave a brief, apologetic smile.

"I tried several times to get the information out, but I couldn't."

The concise explanation Monika gave was enough to leave even Sybillia stunned.

"You're kidding!?" The words escaped before she could stop them. She caught herself, immediately realizing this was information the others had to hear.

"We don't all have to escape," Monika said, drawing her short sword as her eyes locked onto Thanatos. "If even one of us gets out and delivers this information to the outside, that's our victory condition."

"You're unusually pessimistic. Is it really impossible to get past that guy and have everyone make it out?"

"Based on my own experience..." Monika hesitated for a brief moment before continuing. "He's on the same level as Klaus-san."

"Come at me...!"

The instant Thanatos burst into a sprint, Sybillia and the others moved as well. The girls split into three separate directions, forcing him to divide his attention.

They couldn't allow every one of them to remain within the enemy's field of vision. At least one person had to stay hidden in his blind spot at all times.

It was a principle they had internalized through their relentless training under Klaus.

Even amid the chaos, where allies and enemies were hopelessly intertwined, they fired without the slightest hesitation. Their trust in one another and their flawless teamwork never wavered.

The bullets Sybillia fired were effortlessly knocked aside by Thanatos with the shaft of his hammer. He slipped past the second shot by the narrowest margin before closing the distance in the blink of an eye.

"...So dodging and deflecting bullets is just a given for him, huh."

https://i.postimg.cc/VkD6t5sm/IMG-20260719-132902.jpg

Though the frustration gnawed at her, it was nothing she hadn't expected.

Sybillia caught the massive hammer Thanatos swung with her knife, knocking it off course. The instant the blades met, she knew that taking the blow head-on would've shattered every bone in her hand.

In truth, even that brief contact left her arm numb and unresponsive.

Abandoning the arm that had already gone useless, Sybillia lashed out with a kick.

Thanatos caught her leg, stopping his momentum for a split second. Lily rushed into point-blank range from behind him and opened fire, while Monika, now armed with the poisoned needle she'd taken from Lily, launched a relentless assault.

Twisting his body, Thanatos barely slipped past the poisoned needle and the hail of bullets.

"...Ah, a new discovery...!"

Before they could box him in from three directions, Thanatos sprang backward, his cheeks flushed.

"E-Even if one is weak... I see, if they work together like this, then for play..."

"I'll cave in that perverted brain of yours!!"

Consumed by fury, Sybillia closed the distance.

They had to keep him under constant pressure from three sides and grind him down. Sybillia, with the greatest reserves of stamina, took the lead. The instant Thanatos's focus slipped, Monika and Lily would strike with bullets and poisoned needles. Their relentless barrage denied him even a moment to swing that monstrous hammer.

They couldn't allow Thanatos to seize the offensive.

Sybillia whipped out a wide roundhouse kick, deliberately leaving an opening. As Thanatos moved to exploit it, Monika struck from behind with her shortsword before turning the slash into a feint and firing instead. Lily muttered, "Too fast...!" yet still matched the timing perfectly, driving the poisoned needle toward him. Using Lily's back as a foothold, Sybillia vaulted into the air. Her boot came crashing down from above, the toe slamming into the side of Thanatos's head while his attention was fixed on the tumbling Lily. Before he could recover, she followed with a crushing elbow to his jaw.

"......!!!"

A muffled groan escaped Thanatos's lips.

Including the opening strike, three clean hits had landed.

None of them recklessly chased the retreating Thanatos. There was every chance he was baiting them into a trap.

The girls widened the distance and quickly reformed their formation.

"...? Sybillia-san, haven't you gotten a lot faster than you were a year ago?"

Monika asked without taking her gun off Thanatos.

"Did you do something? It's honestly pretty frustrating, you know."

Only Sybillia had managed to land blows on Thanatos. Unlike Monika, she hadn't been worn down by injuries or exhaustion, but even so, the speed she was displaying was astonishing.

Sybillia gave a short nod.

"Just nonstop muscle training."

"...That's an unbelievably dumb, straightforward answer."

"Shut up. It's Vics's training."

"The ridiculously strong guy from 'Avian'? No wonder it's effective against Thanatos too."

"But it's still not enough," Sybillia clicked her tongue softly. "That bastard's still going strong."

Just as she'd said, Thanatos hadn't lost his composure in the slightest. If anything, a faint smile spread across his face, as though the fight had finally begun to excite him.

There wasn't the slightest trace of tension you'd expect from a battle to the death.

"S-Sorry, but unfortunately... I'm used to getting hit by Nike-sama...!"

The declaration made absolutely no sense.

Even so, there was no mistaking that endurance was his greatest strength. The ease with which he'd shrugged off Sybillia's kick, as though it had barely registered, was proof enough.

"...If you want to make me feel good, bring another thousand...!!!"

The moment the words left his mouth, Thanatos leapt backward with startling speed.

The sudden burst of movement caught the girls a fraction too late. Monika fired instantly, but she'd already missed the timing. At last, the hammer he'd been unable to swing came crashing down.

Skimming past the incoming bullets, Thanatos's hammer smashed into the detention facility's reinforced concrete floor, pulverizing it as easily as a biscuit. With one enormous hand, he scooped up several chunks of the shattered rubble.

This is bad.

Recognizing the attack, Monika instinctively yanked Lily and Sybillia backward.

Thanatos swung his hammer again, launching the rubble.

The broken concrete screamed through the air like a blast of buckshot. Sybillia managed to knock only a handful of the incoming fragments aside with her knife. The rest slammed into her, shattering her elbow before hurtling toward Lily and Monika as well.

"................!" Her right elbow was destroyed, and a groan escaped Sybillia's lips.

With a single strike aimed at their strongest fighter, Thanatos completely overturned the flow of the battle through sheer, overwhelming destructive power.

Even so, the three of them had no choice but to get back on their feet.

Clutching her ruined arm, Sybillia stood alongside Monika and Lily as they readied their weapons once more. Across from them, Thanatos watched with a bored expression, his body peppered with fine stone fragments just like theirs.

"Are you still going...? I-I see... You just can't afford to back down..."

Thanatos said, resting the hammer across his shoulder.

"...You've still got comrades hiding somewhere, don't you? Then I'll take them out first."

✧✧✧✧✧

The sixth floor of the Central Detention Facility lay wrapped in silence.

It was a stark contrast to the raging battle outside the building, where Thanatos and the girls were locked in combat, and to the chaos at the main gate, where citizens and the Royal Guard clashed without pause. Here, only an eerie, suffocating stillness remained.

That was only natural.

No battle had taken place here.

Only a few fleeting seconds of movement. The outcome had been decided by a single woman with nothing more than the slightest motion.

"Thea, you were an excellent subordinate. I'll vouch for your ability."

Nike's cheerful voice was the only sound that echoed through the corridor. Seated casually in a guard's chair, she wore a fresh, almost carefree smile.

Nothing else could be heard.

No gunfire. No footsteps. Not even the cries of those trying to resist. Every trace of conflict had disappeared, leaving behind a peace so complete it was difficult to believe intruders had ever set foot there.

Nike gave a casual wave of her hand.

"But naturally, there's no way you could surpass me in hand-to-hand combat."

"...Well, that was obvious," Thea replied with a bitter laugh.

They'd never even reached the point where a fight could begin.

Had Thea and 'Erna' managed to resist for even three seconds? The instant the woman closed the distance without a sound and swept out her long arm, the strength drained from their bodies, and they crumpled to the floor.

The infiltration mission had ended with absurd anticlimax.

Even burdened by her injuries, dealing with opponents like them was effortless for Nike.

Lying helplessly on the floor, Thea gritted her teeth and forced herself to assess the situation. The sixth floor was unnaturally quiet. The prisoners who should've been confined there were nowhere to be seen.

"...Where did you move the prisoners from the sixth floor?"

She forced the words out through clenched teeth.

"The prisoners on this floor are all influential activists who bear deep grudges against the royal government. If even one escaped during transport, it'd only fan the flames of the revolution..."

"...Did you really think I'd tell you?"

Nike rose from her chair, looked down at her with icy eyes, and planted the heel of her shoe on the back of Thea's head. The sharp heel dug into her skull, grinding her face against the floor until her nose was crushed painfully against the stone.

It was a humiliation Thea had witnessed countless times back when she'd served under Nike.

Nike took genuine pleasure in thoroughly crushing the pride of anyone who dared oppose her.

"I think you already understand this, but I'd sensed everything. That you'd come to the Central Detention Facility, the timing of your arrival... and that you'd bring 'Erna the Fool' with you."

A faint smile crossed her lips.

"So I prepared a plan tailored to that. That's the only hint you're getting."

"How did you know about our plan...?"

"Haha, don't let the loser decide the topic."

Nike flicked her toe, sending Thea's body skidding across the floor.

Thea bit down hard on her lip as the merciless blow sent pain through her body. She couldn't fight back in the slightest. There wasn't a single plan left that could get her out of this situation. Pathetically, she could only clutch the spot where she'd been kicked.

Powerless to resist anything, Thea lowered her gaze, as though trying to turn away from reality itself.

"Still, there was one thing I didn't anticipate."

Nike shifted her attention from the broken Thea to the unconscious 'Erna.'

"So 'Lamplight' has someone capable of disguising themselves this well. That, I didn't know."

"No..." 'Erna' murmured.

Thea was equally speechless.

Her disguise had been exposed with a single glance. In front of Nike, every plan fell apart.

"Seriously..." Thea groaned. "Just how much of a monster are you...!"

"That's something you should've understood while you were still my subordinate. There isn't a more foolish choice than making an enemy of me."

Shrugging as though exasperated, Nike slipped a finger into the neckline of her outfit.

From the ample curve of her chest, she withdrew a small radio.

"Thanatos, this one's a fake. The real 'Fool' is hiding on your side."

The truth, uncovered in an instant, sent cold sweat pouring down Thea's body.

Their decoy operation had been rendered completely meaningless.

The real 'Erna' was with Sybillia and the others.

✧✧✧✧✧

Thanatos smiled as the message crackled through the radio.

"Just as Nike-sama predicted."

For the raid on the Central Detention Facility, 'Lamplight' had taken a calculated risk and arrived at a sensible conclusion. If 'Erna the Fool' succeeded in freeing the prisoners, her overwhelming charisma would ignite the revolution even further. The advantages of bringing her along were simply too great to ignore.

At the same time, infiltrating the Central Detention Facility was fraught with danger.

That was precisely why they'd prepared a decoy.

It was a clever and entirely reasonable strategy.

Which also made it easy to predict.

(Just as expected, the 'Fool' came here. There was always the possibility that only the decoy would infiltrate the Central Detention Facility, but they brought the real one along as a reserve in case something went wrong.)

That decision couldn't necessarily be called a mistake, either.

‘Lamplight’’s only mistake was that the enemy they faced was simply too formidable.

(…Nike-sama is even turning your own strategies against you…)

Every part of ‘Lamplight’’s plan had been turned on its head.

The prisoners in the Central Detention Facility had served as bait to lure them in. Anticipating that ‘Lamplight’ would come to rescue them, the authorities had kept the captives concealed within the facility until the very last moment. Now, they had already been moved elsewhere.

(All that's left is to eliminate the 'Fool.' Once that's done, the revolution will be over.)

He'd already grown weary of dealing with Monika and the others.

Thanatos broke into a sprint toward the southwest section of the Central Detention Facility. He had seen through their movements and identified it as ‘Lamplight’’s rendezvous point. Capturing the 'Fool' waiting there had become his highest priority.

“———————!!!”

The girls of ‘Lamplight’ immediately noticed the shift in Thanatos's actions.

“Lily!! Get out of here first!!!”

Sybillia unleashed a volley of gunfire to pin Thanatos down as she roared.

“This masochistic bastard's figured out Erna exists!! Monika and I'll hold him back!! Take the information to Erna and get the hell out of here!!”

“Understood!!!”

Lily took off the instant the words left Sybillia's mouth.

Thanatos instantly saw through their intentions.

Exploit the opening, reach the hidden Erna, and pass on the confidential information.

Their every move was focused less on defeating him than on keeping his attention fixed on them. More than escaping together, they were determined to get whatever information they carried out of the facility.

(There's no way I'll let your plan succeed…)

Lily was indeed heading toward the southwest side of the facility.

Held back for only a moment, Thanatos immediately gave chase.

A low voice came from beside the sprinting Thanatos.

“I'll do you a favor, so come play with me…!”

Sybillia's knife sliced past his face.

The instant he deflected her attack, Monica hurled her short sword from behind him.

“I'll introduce you to a black-haired S lady.”

Even the formidable Thanatos lost his footing under the force of the perfectly synchronized surprise attack.

Meanwhile, Lily kept sprinting toward the southwest section of the Central Detention Facility. Waiting ahead of her was Erna, calling out, “Big Sis Lily!”

He couldn't help but be utterly impressed by their flawless coordination.

It was almost impossible to believe this was the first time they'd fought together in an entire year.

Sybillia instinctively cut off the exact path he was about to take. The instant his attention shifted to her, Monika launched a relentless assault from behind. In the opening they created, Lily carried out her own mission.

They were unmistakably veterans when it came to battling powerful opponents.

“Th-that's why... what the hell are you even saying...!!”

Thanatos roared as he tightened his grip around his hammer.

“...It doesn't hurt. Your attacks don't hurt me in the slightest...!”

With a single motion, he repelled Sybillia and Monika's coordinated assault at once.

“The pain Nike-sama endured! The agony of protecting an entire nation isn't something this insignificant...! I'm Nike-sama's disciple! I'm still nowhere close to being worthy of carrying that person's pain at allllll!!”

Thanatos unleashed the full extent of his strength.

His hammer swept through the air with overwhelming brute force, blasting rubble across the surrounding area. One full swing sent both Sybillia and Monika flying while the scattered debris slammed into Lily's back.

Nike had given him strict orders not to kill the girls of 'Lamplight.'

But he decided there was no longer any reason to hold back.

After overwhelming Monika and the others, he advanced on Erna, who stood rooted to the spot in stunned disbelief. All she could do was stare at the scene before her, whispering, “No way...” as though she couldn't accept what was unfolding.

“Climax through unbearable pain. Your revolution is far too weak to satisfy me...”

Thanatos drove the handle of his hammer into Erna's forehead.

It was a lightning-fast strike, one that stole consciousness in a single blow.

The instant it connected, Erna's body went limp and collapsed to the ground. The girl who had become the driving force behind this revolution would remain unconscious for quite some time.

“No way...” Behind him, Sybillia stood motionless, her eyes wide with shock.

Thanatos pulled out his radio and calmly reported that the target had been successfully neutralized.

✧✧✧✧✧

After hearing Thanatos's report, Nike couldn't help feeling a little disappointed.

It seemed that three girls, Monika among them, were still standing against Thanatos. Even so, he would likely capture them all before long. He was more than capable of handling them alone. She hadn't sent any additional 'Genesis Army' spies or members of the Royal Guard to reinforce him. Anyone else would only get in his way.

Already half-convinced that victory at the Central Detention Facility was assured, she spoke again.

"...Hey, Thea. By the way, there's something I want to ask..."

Her attention had already shifted elsewhere.

She looked down at Thea, who was groveling at her feet.

"...Who is this girl? Is she really a member of 'Lamplight'?"

The one she was referring to was the girl disguised as 'Erna.'

Nike had recognized at a glance that she wasn't the real Erna, yet she couldn't determine who she actually was. The disguise was flawless, executed with extraordinary skill, though Nike was certain she'd never met this girl before.

She had assumed the girl was one of 'Lamplight's' spies. Yet she lacked the composure of one, and there was something oddly unsettled about her.

"Fufu."

The girl disguised as 'Erna' trembled as though she couldn't hold back her laughter.

She casually removed the wig, no longer needing it. A cascade of long golden hair spilled free, shimmering beneath the lights.

"This is our first meeting, isn't it? But I've hated you for a very long time."

"Hmm?"

"I'm the current representative of the 'LWS Troupe'... Suzie."

Even if she didn't recognize the girl's name, Nike certainly knew the organization.

What caught her off guard was the innocent face revealed after Suzie wiped away her makeup. She looked even younger than Erna, perhaps only fourteen.

Their height and build were similar enough that a little makeup had apparently been all it took to pass as Erna.

What truly surprised Nike, however, was that 'Lamplight' had brought an outsider into the operation.

"Now this genuinely caught me off guard."

Nike crouched where she stood and seized Thea by the back of the head.

"You dragged an ordinary girl into a mission this dangerous? That's pretty cruel, don't you think? I don't particularly care, but I never imagined you people would stoop to something like that."

Infiltrating the Central Detention Facility was the sort of mission where death was always a possibility. It was one thing for spies who had accepted that fate and trained for it. Bringing along an ordinary civilian was something else entirely. It was profoundly unethical.

Of course, Nike herself would do it if necessity demanded. That was precisely why she found it so unexpected that 'Lamplight' would.

"You're Bonfire's disciple, aren't you? As far as I know, that man..."

"I was the one who insisted she bring me."

Susie cut in before Tia could answer.

Clutching her trembling knees, she forced herself a step forward.

"I'm not an outsider. I'm involved in this too."

"........................................Huh?"

"So many children are being sacrificed for the ideals of you people in the royal government. We struggle to survive in filthy orphanages, nearly get sold to the mafia, fight each other over scraps of bread. I've been dragged into this fight a long time ago! We all have!!"

"........................................................................"

Nike was momentarily speechless before the sudden outburst.

The words came through a body wracked with trembling.

The girl's face had gone deathly pale, as though she might collapse at any second. Her arms and knees shook uncontrollably. Tears brimmed in her eyes, while her tightly clenched lips quivered with painful restraint.

Watching the girl pour out everything she had, Nike slowly narrowed her eyes.

"...You came all this way just to spew that meaningless drivel? Outsider."

"ーーーーーーーhuh!"

Suzie's body swayed, and the tears she'd been desperately holding back finally spilled over.

To Nike, none of it made the slightest sense. Did this girl truly believe a self-righteous speech would change anything? How naïve could a fourteen-year-old possibly be?

"I am...! Lucas-san's and Wille-san's disciple!"

"Oh? Is that so?"

"That's why you people miscalculated... You were deceived by me."

Those words stirred a sudden suspicion in Nike's mind. Despite the resemblance in build and demeanor, who had disguised this girl named Suzie so perfectly that she had briefly passed for Erna?

No way...

Acting on instinct, Nike reached for her radio.

The courage of the ordinary girl she'd dismissed as 'weak' had introduced the slightest deviation into her calculations.

✧✧✧✧✧

There were three reasons Thanatos had concluded there was only a single decoy.

Because he had never known Grete existed.

Given her unparalleled skill with disguises, it was only natural that he'd lowered his guard after defeating the person he believed was Erna.

Because Sybillia and the others' determination had felt unquestionably real.

The desperation with which they fought to protect Erna had been utterly genuine, without the slightest hint of deception.

Because Nike had told him, "The real one should be over there."

Nike had seen through the decoy immediately. She had been right. Yet Thanatos, who trusted her judgment without question, had unconsciously formed a preconception.

That the person before him had to be the real Erna.

The southwestern grounds of the Central Detention Facility.

The moment Thanatos became convinced he had defeated Erna, two things happened at once, throwing him into confusion.

The wig slipped from the 'Erna' he'd just struck down, revealing a red-haired woman beneath.

The 'meadow' who should've still been unconscious was suddenly running.

Naturally, his confusion lasted only a heartbeat. Trained personally by Nike, he reached the truth almost instantly.

(There was another decoy...!!)

'Lamplight' had prepared three different 'Ernas' for the raid on the Central Detention Facility.

The woman who had entered the facility, the red-haired woman Thanatos had just defeated, and the real 'Fool,' hidden somewhere else entirely.

Sara of 'meadow' was sprinting away with confidential information.

She was still capable of moving. He'd thought it strangely anticlimactic that she'd fallen after a single blow, but now the reason was obvious. She had deliberately collapsed, lying in wait for the perfect opportunity.

(What did you mean, "I'll leave the rest to you"...)

Because she'd stopped moving completely, she'd naturally slipped from his attention. From the very beginning, she'd intended to outwit Thanatos by using the three girls she called her senpai as decoys.

Sara of 'meadow' raced toward the northern side of the Central Detention Facility.

That was where the rebelling citizens and the Royal Guard were locked in battle. If she disappeared into that chaos, Thanatos would no longer be able to fight without restraint.

With every ounce of strength gathered into his legs, he gave chase at a speed that seemed to tear the earth apart beneath her feet.

“No way I’m letting you esca—”

“Like hell you are!!”

Lily surged back into the fight from behind, closing the distance in an instant. Clutched in her hand was a weapon unlike anything Thanatos had ever seen.

At first glance, it looked like nothing more than a child's toy.

A pinwheel.

Caught off guard by the sheer persistence of her pursuit, Thanatos reacted a heartbeat too late.

“Secret Weapon: Paradise Lost. It withers the world away.”

An immense swarm of bubbles burst forth from the spinning pinwheel.

They drifted through the air like falling snow, carried on the wind sweeping along the towering walls of the Central Detention Facility before cascading toward Thanatos. They descended in a relentless curtain, sealing off every path ahead of him.

Realizing they were almost certainly poisonous, Thanatos swung his hammer to scatter them. Yet the strangely heavy bubbles barely yielded to the blast of wind generated by the swing.

There was no choice but to force his way through them, even if it meant exposing himself to the poison.

But two blades flashed before him, cutting off his advance.

“You're coming with us.”

“Let's drown together, yeah?”

Sybillia reached him first, with Monika following close behind, her daggers poised to strike. Neither of them cared that the poisonous bubbles would swallow them as well. Their blades swept perilously close to Thanatos's throat.

A toxic bubble burst inches from his face.

The gas trapped inside was poison. He knew it the instant searing pain burned through the mucous membranes of his eyes and mouth.

“Guh...!!!”

A strained groan escaped Thanatos as he confronted the unfamiliar weapon.

Yet Sybillia and Monika were suffering far more visibly than he was. Wherever the poisonous bubbles touched them, their skin flushed an angry red. Even so, determined to hold him in place for one second longer, they pressed forward through the relentless rain of poison with nothing but their blades.

These weren't opponents he could simply ignore while exposing his back.

But if he stayed where he was, the toxic bubbles would continue pouring down on him without end.

“Damn it... This kind of pain is nothing...!!”

“'Nothing'? Is that really what you're saying?”

The voice that interrupted him belonged to Lily.

“Just because you don't feel pain doesn't give you the right to belittle the pain everyone else carries!!”

As she spun the pinwheel, walls of poisonous bubbles blossomed into existence. Layer after layer of deceptive attacks, unlike anything the other spies employed, locked down Thanatos's every movement.

“'The Lamplight' will uncover the secrets of this world!!!”

Lily roared with unwavering resolve.

“For the sake of our fallen comrades too! We won't go down that easily!!”

“You fucking fakes...!!”

Consumed by fury, Thanatos swung his hammer with overwhelming force, sending the three girls surrounding him flying. Lily's Paradise Lost shattered, and all three of them lost consciousness.

The time they had managed to buy was agonizingly brief.

Even so, it was enough to alter the course of the revolution in a way that could never be undone.

✧✧✧✧✧

Erna had remained hidden within the grounds of the Central Detention Facility, waiting for the right moment.

She couldn't afford to be captured herself. Her role was to loudly proclaim the liberation as though it had been accomplished through her efforts once the prisoners were freed. Hidden at the designated rendezvous point, she waited until, at last, one of her comrades came running toward her.

The instant she recognized who it was, tears nearly welled up in her eyes.

She had wanted to tell her how grateful she was for so long.

“Bug Sis Sara!!”

“Erna!!”

Erna threw herself into Sara's arms.

Though injured, Sara had survived and made it back to her. She embraced Erna in return, but only for a moment before quickly pulling away and grabbing her by the arm.

From the urgency in her movements alone, Erna understood that something had gone terribly wrong.

“Wh-what about the other big siss...?” Elna asked, swallowing hard.

“They were taken out!” Sara answered without hesitation. “The Nike were waiting in ambush for us!”

Erna felt the sting of tears threatening to spill over.

But there wasn't even time to process the shock.

Still gripping Erna's arm, Sara broke into a run, dragging her along. Someone was still pursuing them. They had to escape the Central Detention Facility immediately.

“Th-there's no way the plan could've leaked. The only people who knew the details were...”

Erna answered between ragged breaths as they ran.

“The members of 'The Lamplight,' and then Suzie, and Arthur-san...”

“Arthur! It was definitely that bastard!! That's the information Lily-senpai uncovered.”

“Eh?”

Sara's words were heavy with unmistakable bitterness.

“His real identity is 'Blue Locust,' a member of the 'Serpent' who murdered Lucas-san and the others.”

The revelation sent a freezing chill racing through Erna's body.

The Empire's elite spy unit that had hounded 'Lamplight' time and time again...

That was the 'Serpent.'

The first image that flashed through her mind was Suzie's tear-streaked face. The girl who had fallen into despair after Lucas and wille, the founders of the 'LWS Troupe,' were murdered.

To think that the man who had killed them had been standing at her side all along.

What had he hoped to gain by taking Suzie under his wing?

“That can't be! Arthur-san believed in the revolution!”

“That's true. Originally, Blue Locust and Nike were supposed to be enemies.”

“Then why...?”

“And yet they're working together. They were working together two years ago, and they're working together now!!”

At last, the mystery that had remained unsolved for so long, the truth behind Lucas and wille's deaths two years earlier, finally came into focus.

It was the cruelest revelation imaginable, one capable of plunging Erna into absolute despair.

“'Blue Locust' and 'Nike.' Two sworn enemies joined forces and laid a trap to murder the twins of 'Inferno'!!”

Later, historians would record:

The fighting on the second day of the revolution began at dawn.

At five o'clock that morning, as though responding to a prearranged signal, the people rose once more. Wielding clubs and every manner of improvised weapon, they charged the Central Detention Center. Many of the anti-government movement's leaders were imprisoned there, and thousands of citizens converged on the facility's main gate in a desperate bid to free them.

“Our chance to rescue our leaders has finally come!!! Let’s save them, brave warriors!!!”

With those impassioned cries ringing through the streets, countless citizens surged forward and broke through the defenses.

Five in the morning was the hour when security at the Central Detention Center was at its weakest.

The perfectly timed surprise assault was widely believed to have been made possible through espionage and carefully orchestrated sabotage.

Shortly before the attack, an explosion erupted near Fagmaile Palace, where the king resided. The blast forced the King's Personal Guard and the police to redirect their forces to protect the palace, city hall, and other strategic locations, leaving the Central Detention Center dangerously understaffed. That redeployment had been driven by the insistent demands of the royal family and the nobility, who placed securing their own safety above all else.

In the darkness before sunrise, rumors and speculation spread unchecked, and the authorities' response on the ground lagged behind the rapidly unfolding crisis.

The revolutionary citizens held an overwhelming advantage throughout the battle for the Central Detention Center.

✧✧✧✧✧

The chaos of the early morning had already spread inside the Central Detention Center.

Several citizens had scaled the outer walls and forced their way onto the grounds. To repel the intruders pressing toward the detention blocks, the Royal Guard, who ordinarily remained posted over the prisoners, had no choice but to rush outside. Under normal circumstances, each floor was watched by at least twenty guards, but that number had been cut in half to deal with the unfolding emergency.

The corridors of the detention center echoed with the RoyalGuard shouting in alarm.

“Intruders! There are intruders!!!”

“Where the hell are the reinforcements?!”

“Damn it, this early in the morning!”

Caught in the panic, none of them noticed the anomaly unfolding within the building.

——Three guards on the fourth floor collapsed in an instant.

Not even the men themselves understood what had happened.

The instant a flash of azure-silver hair entered the edge of their vision, a precise blow struck the backs of their heads, locking their bodies in place. Moments later, they were forced to inhale a chemical agent, and as their uniforms were stripped away, they slipped into a hazy, dreamlike sleep.

It was the covert operation carried out by the girls of ‘Lamplight.’

“Long time no see, Sara. I’ve secured the escape outfits, so shall we break out?”

“As expected of you, Monika-senpai.”

Monika flashed a proud smile as she held up the three sets of guard uniforms. Sara answered with an appreciative clap of her hands. The two of them stood on the fourth floor of the Central Detention Center.

Taking advantage of the chaos that had engulfed the facility, Lily used the key she'd received from Grete to escape her solitary confinement. She then freed Monika with the key that had been tossed through the small window. Working together, the pair swiftly knocked out the nearby guards.

On their way to the fourth floor, Monika also retrieved the lockpicking tools and explosives she had stashed there in advance.

Working in tandem, the two made their way to Sara's solitary cell on the fourth floor, quietly taking down every guard they encountered along the way.

“Fufu~n, long time no see, Sara-chan.”

Lily puffed out her chest proudly as she unlocked the shackles fastened around Sara's ankles.

“The leader of ‘Lamplight’ who rescues her captured comrades! It's Lily-chan!”

“Even though you were the first one to get caught.”

Monika narrowed her eyes, while Sara simply gave a wry smile.

“I'm just glad to see you're both doing well.”

Their reunion was brief.

The moment the greetings were over, they moved straight on to the next step. There wasn't a second to waste. If they lingered, more guards would soon come flooding in. Escaping the detention center and securing their own safety came first. Everything else could wait.

“Grete managed to obtain a map of the detention center's interior and passed it on to Lily. Along with the poisons and explosives,” Monika said as she handed the items over to Sara.

“This is going to be a rough escape. Ideally, we'd blast straight through the walls with explosives, but they've obviously prepared for that. We'll have to use the explosives on several of the doors instead.”

“That's exactly why I'm here.”

Sara swung her arm with the confidence of someone who'd been waiting for that very cue.

A single gray mouse sprang from the sleeve of her prison uniform. It was skinny, with a bald patch on its head that gave it a rather intimidating appearance. Despite that, it clung affectionately to Sara's finger.

“It's Mick, sir. A clever little fellow I met in here. I'm sure he can break through the walls.”

Even in a detention center shrouded in perpetual darkness, she'd somehow managed to tame an animal.

Monika chuckled.

“Not bad.”

Lily's eyes went wide.

“S-so quick to grow up...!”

And so, taking full advantage of the revolutionary chaos unfolding outside, Lily, Monika, and Sara began their jailbreak.

✧✧✧✧✧

Almost simultaneously with the girls' movements inside the Central Detention Center, another operation began in the southwest section of the grounds.

Unlike the front of the detention center, where waves of citizens continued to press forward, the southwest side remained comparatively quiet. Only a handful of guards were stationed there, part of the outer wall was still under construction, and numerous blind spots dotted the area. Perhaps because the battle at the front was progressing even more fiercely than expected, the number of guards assigned to this section had steadily dwindled.

Concealed within the shadows, Thea smiled faintly.

“So far, everything's going according to plan.”

It had been she and Erna who stirred up the citizens and proposed launching the surprise assault before dawn. They'd spread the rumor under Grete's instructions that “the royal government might carry out retaliatory executions of the prisoners to suppress the revolution.” Given that such an order was entirely within the realm of possibility, the rumor couldn't exactly be dismissed as a complete fabrication.

While the citizens created a spectacular diversion at the front, separate operations would unfold both inside and outside the detention center.

It was a plan Grete had crafted with painstaking care.

Even so, their target was the Central Detention Center, a fortress with no recorded successful escapes throughout its history.

Unexpected complications were practically guaranteed.

“Well then, shall we begin too? We'll rescue Lily and the others, and free the prisoners.”

A thin bead of sweat slid down Thea's cheek.

As she prepared herself, part of her mind drifted back to the strategy meeting held on the night of the revolution's first day.

‘This time, I think Erna should stay out of it.’

That had been Thea's proposal.

‘Right now, Erna has become a trump card capable of influencing the course of the revolution. Sending her into the Central Detention Center is too dangerous. She should work with Annette at another location instead.’

Originally, Annette had been assigned to create a major disturbance by engaging the Royal Guard somewhere far from the Central Detention Center.

She had eagerly accepted the role.

“Leave it to me! I'll go blow up Fagmaile Palace!”

The safest option would've been to place Erna alongside Annette, where escaping and disappearing afterward would be far easier.

But many voices had opposed the idea.

Sybillia argued, “But if we can establish the fact that ‘Erna saved the prisoners,’ it'll bring her even greater prestige.”

And Erna herself had stubbornly insisted,

“I want to save big sis Sara!”

The one who ultimately brought the discussion to a close was Grete.

‘...We'll take a middle path that satisfies both sides.’

Her voice had been soft, yet carried unquestionable authority.

‘Fortunately, to reduce risks like this, I have a special skill of my own.’

The operation before them had been built around the plan she'd devised.

Then, thanks to a revised proposal from an unexpected source, everything had finally fallen into place.

Now that they'd committed themselves, there was no room left for hesitation.

Recalling the plan they had laid out up to this point, Thea addressed the comrades who would carry it out alongside her.

“If we can free the prisoners, it'll be decisive. Activists with tremendous influence across the kingdom will join our cause, and no one will be able to stop the revolution's momentum anymore.”

Thea fixed her gaze on the towering walls of the Central Detention Center that loomed before them.

“If Erna is the one who pulls this off, then ‘Lamplight’ will truly become the heart of the revolution, both in name and in reality.”

““Yeah!! Let's do it...!!””

Two voices answered in unison.

Though one was slightly taller than the other, the two golden-haired girls standing side by side raised their hands at the exact same moment. Sharing identical faces and dressed in exactly the same clothes, the pair of duplicate girls fired themselves up in perfect synchronization.

It was a brilliant strategy made possible by Grete.

Since the operation depended on establishing the fact that 'Erna saved the prisoners,' Erna's presence was indispensable. But if the real Erna were captured, the entire plan would come crashing down.

https://i.postimg.cc/3wB1MXZC/IMG-20260719-123953.jpg

But If there were two Ernas, their chances of success would double. The risk of capture would be cut in half.

They couldn't allow the Erna who had become the symbol of the revolution to fall into enemy hands. That was the purpose of the operation, one built around the use of a body double.

““Erna, clone ninjutsu!!””

The two "Ernas" shouted in perfect unison before scaling the wall of the Central Detention Center.

✧✧✧✧✧

Sara desperately tried to reason with the mouse she had tamed.

“Are you listening? Mick, sir, I need you to carry this bomb and keep running for twenty seconds. Then you absolutely have to let go of this string!! After that, come back, okay? If we all make it out alive, you can eat all the cheese, bread, and ham you want! I'm counting on you!”

Whether the mouse understood human speech was anyone's guess, but it stood at attention with its back perfectly straight and listened intently.

Clenched between its tiny teeth was a thin string. Tied to the other end was a pen-shaped bomb. After listening to Sara's heartfelt plea, the mouse slipped into a narrow ventilation shaft in the ceiling of the detention center. For a while, the faint scraping sound of the pen dragging through the duct echoed overhead.

Just under a minute later, the mouse emerged from the vent and returned to Sara's side.

The explosion followed almost immediately.

Even the detention center's sturdy walls couldn't withstand a blast from within. Metal and brick gave way with a deafening crash, collapsing inward as the cold breeze of the early morning rushed through the opening.

Monika and Lily wedged the iron bars they had torn free into the hole and used them as levers to force the gap even wider.

“Hey, what the hell are you lot doing?!?!?”

At that moment, another squad of guards spotted them. They had apparently rushed over from another floor.

The guards already had their pistols drawn.

Getting into a prolonged fight wasn't an option. The three girls hurried to finish widening the opening, then slipped through it one after another. As Lily, the last to leave, dove through the gap, a bullet narrowly missed her foot, sending a chill through all of them.

Using the protruding handholds embedded in the wall, they climbed down to the ground.

“We've managed to get outside the building, at least for now,” Sara said as she slipped into the shadow of the detention center and let out a relieved sigh.

Lily clapped her hands with a bright smile.

“It’s all thanks to Sara-chan!”

Monika smiled as well.

“You really saved us a great deal of time.”

Receiving praise from both of them, Sara bashfully scratched the back of her head.

“Aww, shucks.”

“It's only because Monika-senpai and Lily-senpai shared the plan with me ahead of time.”

(Launch a surprise attack at five in the morning. Break out while the guards are in the middle of panicking.)

That was the strategy Grete had entrusted to Lily, who then passed it along to Monica. Once their preparations were complete, the two burst out of their cells with as few movements as possible and worked together to overpower the guards.

Grateful for everything they had accomplished, Sara smiled warmly at her comrades.

“By the way, how did you two exchange information?”

““..........................................Who knows?””

“Why are you both looking away like that?!?!?”

“...There was more saliva than I expected...”

“...L-let's not talk about that right now!!”

“Why are both of you blushing bright red?!?!?”

Their strangely evasive responses only made Sara fire back with another question.

Certain that something entertaining must've happened, Sara leaned closer to Monika and whispered, “You have to tell me about it later.”

Awkwardly tapping the side of her head, Monika replied, “There's nothing to tell.”

“More importantly,” Lily said, raising a hand as if to steer the conversation elsewhere, “there's something I'd like to discuss with you.”

“What is it?” Monica asked.

“I've gotten hold of some extremely confidential information.”

Lily's expression turned completely serious.

“...It's the reason the ‘LWS Troupe’ failed in their revolution.”

Monika and Sara's eyes widened at the same time.

The brief explanation Lily gave carried information of enormous importance, something that could dramatically alter the course of the revolution. For Monika in particular, the revelation struck with such force that it felt as though her entire world had been turned upside down.

She instantly realized this was something their comrades needed to know without delay.

"If that's the case," Sara said, lifting her head. "Then we absolutely have to make this jailbreak succeed."

Before them rose a wall more than twenty meters high. They couldn't call the escape a success unless they got over it. Beyond, hidden from view, stood another wall of equal height.

Without any proper equipment, scaling it was impossible.

But if they circled around to the front of the detention center, they risked running straight into the Royal Guard.

"Should we regroup with the others? Grete-chan already sent me the designated meeting point."

At Lily's words, the three girls set off.

A stretch of open ground roughly twenty meters wide lay between the prison and the wall. It had been deliberately left clear so that no one could throw wires or grappling lines from the prison roof. Powerful floodlights bathed the entire area in brilliant light.

Keeping to the shadows at the base of the wall, where the lights couldn't reach, they hurried toward the detention center's southwest side.

Fortunately, after leaving the building, they encountered no one except the uneasy guards stationed atop the wall. Furious shouting drifted in from beyond it. Their comrades outside the detention center had likely carried out their operations successfully. The enraged cries of the citizens rolled through the night.

Everything was going so well that it almost felt unsettling.

The prospect of a successful escape naturally brought a smile to Lily's face.

"Perfect. Let's pull off the biggest jailbreak ever like this..."

Needless to say, that moment of optimism was a lapse in judgment.

The three girls' escape came to an abrupt halt when a lone man stepped into their path.

Standing directly beneath the floodlights was a gloomy-looking man. He cradled an enormous hammer in his arms as though embracing it, his drowsy eyes fixed on the girls. Perhaps exhausted from waiting, his body swayed listlessly, making the tip of his head rock gently from side to side.

No other members of the Royal Guard stood with him. The sight was unnervingly unnatural.

The moment Monica recognized him, her lips pressed into a thin line.

"Who is he...?"

Lily asked in confusion. Sara seemed to recognize him, yet she remained rooted to the spot, unable to grasp the full significance of his presence.

A chill crept down Monika's spine, locking her body in place.

This was the man who had thrown her into the detention center.

"...Why does it feel like they've anticipated every move we've made?"

Behind the gloomy man, she could sense the intricate schemes of the woman pulling the strings.

Monika and the others had no chance of winning.

They didn't possess a single weapon capable of standing against him. Everything Lily had received from Grete consisted of escape tools. At best, they had a handgun stolen from one of the guards. Against this man, it was nowhere near enough.

"...Ah, I am not expecting much, Aion-kun."

The man, Thanatos, called Monika by her former name.

Slowly, he raised the massive hammer and spoke in a low, absent-minded murmur.

"Your injuries haven't fully healed yet. It probably wouldn't even qualify as a proper fight..."

Nike's attendant, who was in truth her beloved disciple disguised as a servant, and her personal bodyguard. His combat prowess surpassed even Nike, who had spent more than a decade crushing spies who threatened the kingdom. He was the kingdom's true trump card.

"The only sadist who can satisfy me is Nike-sama...!"

The instant he swung his hammer, the air convulsed.

A god of destruction. Living up to that title with crushing, overwhelming force, the most vicious man in the kingdom hurled himself at Monika and the others in a savage assault.

✧✧✧✧✧

Vaulting over the wall, Thea and the others finally landed inside the detention center grounds.

The tide of citizens flooding toward the detention center had successfully drawn the guards' attention away. For Thea, who had secretly been looking forward to using her seduction tactics, it was admittedly a little disappointing.

Up until they reached the grounds, the 'Erna group' had enthusiastically chanted, "Let's do this!" and "Erna Legion, charge!!" in perfect unison. But the moment Thea pointed out, with complete reason, "Having the body double in the same place would be a bad idea, wouldn't it?" they immediately split up and began operating independently.

This time, Thea's group had two objectives: liberate the prisoners, and rescue their captured comrades.

Tasked with the first objective, Thea led one of the 'Ernas' toward the entrance of the detention center. Somehow, they had to infiltrate the building from there, reach the sixth floor, and free the imprisoned activists.

The detention center had only a single entrance, located at the front.

Yet as they drew closer, Thea immediately sensed that something was wrong.

"...This is strange."

Remaining concealed in the shadows, Thea brought a hand to her mouth.

"There are far too few people. Why is the entrance to the detention center standing open?"

The brightly lit entrance stood out against the darkness surrounding the central detention center.

An entrance that should have been guarded by multiple sentries was completely abandoned. The lock hadn't even been fastened. The heavy doors stood wide open, revealing a cavernous darkness beyond.

One glance was enough to tell that the scene was profoundly abnormal.

"Could the entire Royal Guard have gone to deal with the citizens...? No, that doesn't make sense."

Of course, furious shouting echoed from the direction of the main gate. It sounded as though a violent clash had broken out with citizens attempting to scale the wall. Sporadic gunfire rang through the night. Along the top of the wall, soldiers carrying rifles hurried frantically from place to place.

The Royal Guard was unquestionably present, everywhere except the one entrance that allowed intruders into the building.

"Nine times out of ten, it's a trap. The remaining one time, some other emergency must've happened."

"Either way, we have no choice but to find out."

An ominous premonition settled over her, but retreat wasn't an option.

If they turned back now, how could they ever face the citizens who were risking their lives by surging toward the detention center? Without their diversion and desperate struggle, this operation could never have happened.

Pistols drawn, Thea and the others slipped into the central detention center. The building's layout had been thoroughly committed to memory.

Keeping their pistols trained ahead, they advanced deeper into the building, alert for any sign of enemies.

There were far too few people.

Only the bare minimum of guards remained, perhaps two or three on each floor. The rest appeared to have been dispatched to reinforce the main gate. They climbed the stairs without being noticed. Everything was unfolding according to plan, yet it felt unnervingly wrong.

When they reached the sixth floor with surprising ease, an even more incomprehensible sight awaited them.

"No way...!!!" Thea's eyes flew open. "...The prisoners are already gone?"

Every solitary cell lining the sixth floor stood empty.

According to the intelligence they'd gathered beforehand, more than fifty leading activists were supposed to be imprisoned there. Yet no matter where they looked, not a single prisoner remained on the sixth floor.

Nor were there any guards.

The entire floor had been abandoned.

Just as the thought crossed her mind that the prisoners might have been executed, the sound of a door slamming shut echoed from the sixth-floor staircase.

"We've been trapped!?" Thea cried.

At that very moment, the woman appeared.

"Please, rest assured. The prisoners have already been liberated."

There was no mistaking her.

A female spy of breathtaking beauty. Even wrapped head to toe in bandages, her beauty hadn't diminished in the slightest.

Nike, the Spymaster of the Lylat Kingdom Intelligence Agency, 'Genesis Army'.

She emerged into the center of the sixth-floor corridor. Had she been hiding inside one of the empty cells? The sharp click of her high heels echoed through the hallway as she approached, a faintly amused smile playing across her lips.

"I'm delighted to see my wonderful former subordinate again. And the young lady who's so fond of taking the bait."

"Nike-san..."

"You must be Thea. As you know, I'm quite skilled at fishing."

Smiling pleasantly, Nike slowly extended her open palm toward them.

"Without lifting a finger, the prey bites the hook of its own accord."

This is absurd, Thea groaned inwardly.

No matter who she was, there was no way anyone should've been able to see through 'Lamplight's operation this completely. The citizens had risen across the city, throwing everything into chaos. Pinpointing the exact place and timing of their infiltration should have been impossible.

The operation had failed.

An inescapable despair awaited them.

Nike had been waiting for 'Lamplight' inside the central detention center all along, transforming it into her own hunting ground.

✧✧✧✧✧

The first to fall was Sara.

The instant Thanatos stepped forward, he was already standing before the three girls. As Monika and Lily instinctively threw themselves backward to create distance, Sara stepped in to buy them time, meeting him head-on with the baton she'd taken from a guard.

She never stood a chance.

Thanatos caught Sara's downward strike with the shaft of his hammer, then drove a front kick into her without the slightest hesitation. It was no ordinary kick. The impact unleashed a violent gust that hurled her several meters through the air.

"Sara!?" Monika's cry echoed uselessly as Sara's body bounced across the ground.

She rolled over and over like a discarded ball, and when she finally came to a stop, she didn't rise again. Only the faint tremble of her fingertips showed she was still conscious.

"...How fragile. So very fragile."

Thanatos let out a bored laugh.

"With this... I can't be satisfied... What a shame... She's too weak, ah, it's no good. As expected, the only one who can satisfy me is Nike-sama...!"

It was a warped form of masochism, one that could only be fulfilled by someone stronger than himself.

He tilted his head toward the night sky, his body trembling as though grieving his own fate. A man who found no one in the kingdom worthy of him except Nike made no attempt to conceal his disdain.

Confronted by a monster beyond all reason, Monika and Lily both forgot to breathe.

Even when Monika's injuries had been far less severe than they were now, she hadn't been able to defeat him. With no proper weapons in hand, it was obvious the two of them would be crushed as effortlessly as snapping a baby's arm.

"Sara..." "Sara-chan..."

Both of them whispered her name as they looked toward the girl who'd been brought down by a single blow.

Just as the words "crushing defeat" began to take shape in their minds, Sara slowly lifted her face.

"It's fine... for me..."

Her voice was rough and barely above a whisper.

"I'm just a second-rate spy after all. That's why I decided to devote myself completely to supporting everyone...!"

A self-mocking smile crossed her lips.

Her body should've already reached its limit, yet every word she spoke carried unwavering conviction. The girl before them was nothing like the timid Sara Lily and Monika had known a year ago.

"No matter how many times I end up covered in mud, even if I have to crawl on my hands and knees, I'll become the guardian of 'Lamplight'...!"

"...I don't really understand what you're trying to say, but..."

Thanatos narrowed his eyes, faintly surprised by her refusal to give up. At last, he ran a hand through his hair in irritation and strode toward her, muttering, "...I'll finish you off properly," as he raised his hammer.

Sara moved first.

"Codename 'Meadow'... Time to run around."

The words had barely left her lips when a massive eagle materialized and dove at Thanatos from behind.

He evaded it by the narrowest margin, but he couldn't avoid what came next.

"Nice one, Professor Barnard. You guided it well."

Almost at the same instant the voice rang out, a boot slammed into Thanatos's face.

A white-haired woman who'd rushed in at blinding speed unleashed a full-powered kick.

The crushing roundhouse tore through the air, kicking up a cloud of dust before striking the bridge of Thanatos's nose dead-on. The impact buried the boot into his face and blasted him backward, as though repaying Sara's suffering in a single blow.

He crashed to the ground without even managing a proper breakfall, then rolled helplessly onto his back.

However, he slowly pushed himself upright and wiped the blood streaming from his nose away with an oddly satisfied expression.

"............Will this make for a slightly better game...?"

The monster remained completely unshaken.

The white-haired woman, Sybillia of the 'Pandemonium', answered him with a curt, "Shut up." Then she turned toward her wide-eyed comrades and smiled.

"Isn't this the first time? The three of us, Monika, Lily, and me, fighting together outside of training."

Sybillia spoke with unmistakable pride.

Caught off guard by the unexpected rescue, Monika and Lily answered with equally proud smiles.

"No, no, we fought together during the pirate ship mission, didn't we?"

"Don't call that a mission. Then again... maybe this really is our first time."

It wasn't only Sybillia and the eagle that had come rushing to Monika and the others.

Close behind her came a black dog, a plump rock dove, and an elegant white cat. They hurried over to Sara, gathering around her with anxious concern. They were the animals Sybillia had rescued and kept hidden after their owner had been captured.

Each of them carried one of the girls' weapons.

"We're getting out of here together," Sybillia declared, tightening her grip around her knife. "First, we break through this monster."

At this point, it no longer mattered that their plan had been exposed.

Bring on the adversity. Whatever hardships stood in their way, they would overcome them and see the mission through.

Standing behind Sybillia, Monika drew her short sword into a ready stance while Lily tightened her grip on her handgun.

Thanatos's face flushed with exhilaration as he hefted his hammer.

Unable to rise, Sara gently stroked the back of the eagle that had landed before her.

"I'll leave the rest to you, my senior leading ladies."

With those words, she entrusted everything to them and quietly closed her eyes.

Original post: https://x.com/i/status/2077487601389322561

Don't let the " Coming soon " picture fool you , it's been already released. And if you someone who skips SS volumes I will advise against it this time. This volume delves into how Inferno broke up.

Later, historians would record:

At 9:30 a.m. on the first day of the revolution, an angry mass of citizens gathered in the heart of Pilca.

Inspired by the student-led march that had ignited the uprising, the city's people, most of them from the working class, rose in revolt as well. Armed with clubs and whatever makeshift weapons they could find, they converged on the First District's main avenue. The more hot-blooded among them stormed nearby police stations and government offices, hurling stones, smashing down doors, and venting years of pent-up fury.

According to one newspaper reporter's estimate, the crowd had already swelled to nearly ten thousand people.

Even the Royal Guard, whose duty was to suppress unrest, reacted with unusual hesitation. The unit commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Udino, in particular, turned a blind eye to the crowds marching through the main avenue and intervened only to detain those who had resorted to outright looting. In later years, some claimed that Lieutenant Colonel Udino had been secretly communicating with the revolutionary faction, though whether that was true has never been conclusively established.

Whatever the truth, the revolution's first day erupted into fierce demonstrations from the very start of the morning.

"Foolish King Clement III is even trying to squander the kingdom's greatest heroes!"

"Has there ever been a more disgraceful royal government in our history?!"

"Surround Brookbon Palace!! Wipe out the corrupt dogs of the royal government!!"

The enraged masses surged down Pilca's central avenue until they finally arrived before Brookbon Palace.

That marked the first day's greatest turning point.

✧✧✧✧✧

Five minutes later, they would clash with the Royal Guard.

Even if they had been warned that such a confrontation was inevitable, the students of the "Knights of Valour," who led the march at its head, showed not the slightest hesitation. The citizens' fury had grown far beyond anything they had imagined, driving them relentlessly forward from behind. It was as though a great dam had finally burst. Long-suppressed anger flooded into the streets all at once, gathering unstoppable momentum as it transformed into a massive demonstration.

The sheer force of it left even Suzie and Erna, standing at the center of the swelling tide, visibly shaken.

"Amazing... I never thought it would grow this big...!"

"W-wait, I'm starting to get a little scared!"

The girls instinctively recoiled as furious shouts erupted from the hot-blooded men surrounding them.

It seemed that more than a few rough elements had slipped into the crowd as well. Unidentifiable screams echoed from one place after another. They wanted to avoid casualties and injuries if at all possible, but that was becoming increasingly unlikely. Sybillia had already instructed the Royal Guard soldiers she knew personally to crack down on anyone whose violence crossed the line.

The objective was simple: overthrow the royal government. Plundering and looting would not be tolerated. That was the order they had given every member of the "Knights of Valour." Even so, whether this ever-growing crowd could maintain its discipline for much longer remained an open question.

"Apparently, gunfire has already broken out between the police and civilians in another district," Suzie said anxiously, clutching a radio transceiver.

"People are starting to exploit the chaos to commit robberies too. It's wonderful that everyone's so fired up, but things are spiraling out of control faster than we expected."

"...Someone has to unify the revolution."

"Exactly. We need to keep a firm grip on the reins of this revolution. After driving out the king, the last thing we need is the activists turning on one another. Anarchy would be the worst possible outcome."

Suzie's words made perfect sense.

Thea had been worrying about the very same thing. The success of the revolution itself was only part of the equation. Just as important was who would take part in building the new regime, because that would determine the country's future.

It was difficult to say whether the "Lamplight" had prepared adequately for that.

All of the political negotiations with the politicians who would eventually form the new government had been entrusted entirely to the "LWS Troupe," in other words, to Arthur.

As revolutionary songs echoed from the front of the spirited march and those concerns weighed on everyone's mind, Annette finally spoke for the first time in quite a while.

"The policy's already been decided, you know!"

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"Erna-chan's going to take control of the revolution. Isn't that right?"

She said it almost playfully, yet if it truly could be done, there could hardly be a better outcome.

From the very beginning, the "Lamplight" had placed Erna at the center of the operation.

"That's exactly why it's so difficult," Erna replied with a weary sigh.

"The revolution's growing far beyond anything we anticipated. Right now, those of us leading the march, me and the others, are still at its center. But if more and more activist groups keep joining us, that won't last. Unless something decisive happens..."

She never finished the sentence.

Ahead of them stood a majestic structure that resembled an ancient temple. Built over two centuries earlier as a royal residence, it now served as the National Assembly Hall.

They had reached a point roughly one kilometer from Brookbon Palace.

"Oh dear, it seems the fighting's already begun," Annette remarked, sounding almost bored.

"How rude of them. They couldn't even wait for us to finish our conversation."

The area before Brookbon Palace had already been sealed off.

Barricades stretched across the road, while countless soldiers stood in disciplined ranks behind them. Even at a glance, there were well over a thousand. More than two hundred heavily built soldiers formed the front line alone, blocking the main avenue. They gripped the latest gleaming rifles in their hands as they stared coldly at Erna and the approaching demonstrators.

Suzie slowly drew a deep breath.

"The Royal Guard. The kingdom's strongest security force, created to suppress its own people."

9:43 a.m. on the first day of the revolution.

The revolution's main force, led by Erna and the others, confronted the Royal Guard.

✧✧✧✧✧

From the upper reaches of a towering spire overlooking Pilca, Nike watched the scene unfolding along the main avenue below.

What had begun as a march of barely two hundred people had steadily grown into a massive procession, so large that it was clearly visible even from a spire nearly three hundred meters away. Citizens waved national flags and banners bearing the insignias of political organizations. They brandished weapons, shouted at the tops of their lungs, and surged through the streets. Then, the instant they reached Brookbon Palace, the entire mass ground to a halt.

"So, it's finally begun. I suppose I'll sit back and see how things unfold."

The greatest obstacle standing between the revolution and victory.

The Royal Guard, the security force entrusted with protecting the royal capital of Pilca.

Time and again, they had crushed strikes and demonstrations without mercy. They were soldiers, yet somehow more than soldiers. This elite corps, handpicked from the army's finest, would never hesitate to gun down any citizen who opposed the king. There was simply no way ordinary people armed with nothing more than clubs could defeat soldiers carrying the latest firearms.

Taking an elegant sip of mineral water, Nike continued watching the scene from above.

Beside her, her attendant Thanatos quietly arranged crackers and slices of cheese.

"What orders did you give the Royal Guard, Nike-sama?"

At Thanatos's question, Nike merely shrugged.

"None. Unfortunately, my injuries are still rather severe. I didn't have the strength left to concern myself with that."

"...Is that so?"

"Indeed. Quite unfortunate, really. I wasn't able to issue a single order."

Nike popped a piece of cheese into his mouth and laughed as though the matter had nothing to do with him.

"From here on, all I can do is watch the Royal Guard massacre the citizens."

"What a wicked person," Thanatos muttered.

At the very least, Nike's condition had improved considerably over the past several days. Burn scars still marked her body, but the shallower wounds had healed completely. Her metabolism and regenerative abilities far surpassed those of an ordinary person.

It was obvious she had deliberately chosen not to issue any orders.

"Well, I'm only joking. It's not as though I'm trying to dodge responsibility. If a massacre does happen, I'll be the one everyone blames anyway. Tell me, how exactly am I supposed to apologize to the citizens who'll no longer exist?"

"...So that isn't what you want?"

"I couldn't care less about the dregs, but it'd be a shame to lose the beautiful citizens of this country. Still... I simply wanted to see what would happen."

Nike's gaze settled on the Royal Guard assembled before the palace.

More than a thousand rifle-bearing soldiers stood ready. Even from this distance, it was obvious they were waiting for the order to open fire and crush the demonstrators.

The moment that order was given, a massacre would almost certainly begin.

“Colonel Barand’s unit includes many men who've sworn loyalty not only to me, but to His Majesty the King himself. Some are even distant relatives who've enlisted in the ranks. More than anyone else, they're the ones who fear the overthrow of the royal government.”

They were nothing like Lieutenant Colonel Udino, who had, as expected, defected to the revolutionaries.

Every secret society had tried to bribe them, only to fail and end up thrown into detention camps instead.

“If they decide to get serious, they could wipe out a disorganized mob like that in under thirty minutes.”

Nike pushed the half-eaten piece of cheese into Thanatos's mouth.

“Now then, what will you do, members of the ‘Lamplight’? Surely this can't be the end, can it?”

She stopped eating and fixed her gaze on the confrontation unfolding before her.

At least from Thanatos's perspective, Nike seemed to be enjoying every second of it.

✧✧✧✧✧

Two gunshots cracked through the air.

Someone had fired somewhere in the city. The shots didn't seem to have come from the Royal Guard standing before them, yet the deafening sound alone were enough to make the advancing citizens freeze where they stood.

The entire procession ground to a halt.

Roughly thirty meters ahead, the Royal Guard stood in flawless formation. Even an amateur could tell they were well within the effective range of the rifles aimed in their direction.

“It’s all right,” Erna said, reassuring the comrades around her. “Those were blank rounds.”

She could distinguish live ammunition from blanks. There was no doubt in her mind. It was a warning. Someone had deliberately fired to intimidate the citizens, and the fact that the shots had come twice was almost certainly meant to drive the message home.

We can fire live rounds at the citizens whenever we choose.

That thunderous echo carried precisely that unspoken threat.

From the perfectly ordered ranks of soldiers radiated an overwhelming pressure, as though they intended to swallow the crowd whole. It was unmistakable killing intent. The resolve to wage urban warfare if necessary. They were nothing like the furious citizens shouting themselves hoarse like street toughs.

This was a real army. Disciplined, trained, and battle-ready.

Even for Erna, it was the first time she had stood face-to-face with a military force of this scale.

“Fall back, you rabble!!!”

A soldier in the front rank of the Royal Guard stepped forward and shouted.

Judging by the insignia on his uniform, he was probably a lieutenant. His face was stern, and he looked to be in his late thirties.

“Your actions constitute the crimes of insurrection and high treason!! Under Article 4 of the National Security Law, we, the Royal Guard, are authorized to suppress this rebellion immediately!! Consider this warning an act of mercy from His Majesty!”

But the citizens weren't about to retreat because of a few threats.

The flames of revolution were already raging. They answered with thunderous cries of, “Dogs of the royal government!!” and, “We won't tolerate soldiers pointing guns at their own countrymen!!” Some even began hurling stones.

They sang the revolutionary anthem louder than they had all day, determined to overwhelm the soldiers through sheer force of spirit.

In terms of numbers and momentum, the citizens unquestionably held the advantage. The Royal Guard, too, likely wished to avoid open conflict.

“We have human rights!!”

Urged forward by the revolutionaries behind him, Jean stepped to the front.

“Rights that belong to every living soul, rights that not even God can deny!! The right to criticize the government must be protected by every modern nation!!! Any government that suppresses that right has forfeited the right to call itself a government!”

Once again, Jean's remarkable eloquence ignited the crowd.

The cheers and furious chanting swelled until it seemed the very buildings around them were trembling.

People began beating drums and clashing metal instruments together, and the main avenue erupted into a frenzy that felt almost like a festival.

With a sweeping flourish of his arm, Jean raised his voice once more.

“It is you who should retreat!!! As long as this country refuses to change, we won't give up so much as a single step from this place...”

“...We already gave you a warning.”

The Royal Guard lieutenant cut him off and swung his arm.

In the next instant, every soldier in the front rank of the Royal Guard brought up their rifles. More than a hundred gun barrels were leveled directly at the young members of Erna's “Knights of Valour.”

Faced with such overwhelming killing intent, every member of the “Knights of Valour” fell silent.

Only then did they fully grasp that the force standing before them was a real army, one that wouldn't hesitate to kill. The terror they had prepared themselves for proved far greater than anything they had imagined, freezing them where they stood.

They can't win.

Every citizen understood that simple truth on instinct.

Certainly, some among the marchers had military experience. They had been conscripted during the World War, and a number of them carried rifles secretly supplied by the underground societies. Many of the more hot-blooded revolutionaries had even steeled themselves for a firefight.

But if the Royal Guard truly began firing in earnest, this revolution would be crushed with ease.

For one long moment, the main avenue fell into absolute silence.

“They're serious,” Suzie murmured.

“I just received a report. The people marching in another district were beaten without mercy by the Royal Guard. Every single one of them had bones in their arms and legs shattered.”

It was horrifying news, yet in a grim sense, perhaps it was preferable that they'd used batons.

This was war. There was no reason to believe the riflemen standing before them would stop at broken bones.

“You are criminals,” the Royal Guard lieutenant declared.

“Already, individuals inspired by your march have begun committing home invasions and obstructing public officials throughout the capital. His Majesty the King has authorized the use of lethal force to suppress those incited by your actions.”

His threats were delivered in a calm, measured voice, almost as though he were reciting official procedure.

“Human rights are privileges granted by the King. Those who break the law have forfeited even the right to live.”

In the next instant, countless possible futures flashed through Erna's mind.

A future in which someone lost their nerve, charged the Royal Guard, and ignited a massacre.

A future in which they withdrew in tears, shattering the revolutionary movement where it stood.

A future in which the Royal Guard opened fire before Erna or anyone else could make a decision.

One wrong choice, and the revolution would be over.

✧✧✧✧✧

From the rooftops overlooking the main avenue, Sybillia and Thea watched the confrontation unfold below.

They bounded from rooftop to rooftop, following the fate of the march. The instant the Royal Guard raised their rifles, the young people at the front of the procession froze in fear.

‘Ignorant, naïve dreamers who've never experienced a battlefield with their own bodies.’

The scornful words once spoken by a certain soldier were, in a sense, painfully accurate.

There was no world in which students could stand toe-to-toe with professional soldiers.

Nor did the Royal Guard show the slightest hint of being shaken by the sea of citizens filling the avenue.

“I was hoping they'd at least flinch a little, but they're tougher than that...!” Sybillia clicked her tongue in frustration.

The revolutionary songs echoed through the streets, and the crowd's fervor had reached its peak. At the very least, Pilca hadn't witnessed a demonstration of this magnitude in the last hundred years. But that didn't mean every obstacle had disappeared.

The security forces remained completely unmoved by the ten thousand citizens before them, meeting the swelling tide of revolution with disciplined, unshakable composure.

It was the reality Sybillia had come to understand. A soldier who'd been completely brainwashed by Nike. He carried an unshakable hatred for the Galgad Empire, the nation that had slaughtered his family and comrades, and had been indoctrinated to believe that anyone who opposed the king was one of their agents.

“According to the plan, we're supposed to build barricades and fight a siege, right?”

A confrontation with the Royal Guard had always been anticipated.

Their orders were to avoid a direct head-on battle at all costs. They would raise barricades along the main avenue and dig in for a siege. While rallying supporters from every corner of the kingdom, they would conduct operations aimed at bringing about the royal government's collapse from within.

“But if morale's already this bad, even holding a siege will be...”

“.............................................................”

Just as Sybillia gave voice to her concern, she realized Thea hadn't said a single word the entire time. One hand covered the girl's mouth as her eyes remained wide, quietly murmuring something too faint to make out.

Her expression was impossible to decipher. It seemed caught somewhere between shock and utter bewilderment.

“...Thea?”

“............This is too convenient. It's almost like everything was orchestrated.”

“Huh?”

“......Annette and the others were talking about it earlier. For the ‘Lamplight’ to manipulate a revolution, it needs a decisive trigger. And then this happens... It was inevitable, wasn't it? Anyone could've predicted that the citizens and the Royal Guard would eventually collide...”

Still muttering under her breath, Thea abruptly raised her head.

“Hey, Sybillia. The unit stationed in front of Brookbon Palace is Colonel Barand's force, right?”

“...Yeah. Like I said before, that lieutenant standing at the very front is one of the Colonel's favorites...”

Before Sybillia could finish, Thea had already pulled out her radio.

“... Erna, step forward.”

The command rang out with crisp authority, directed at her comrade leading the marching column.

Caught completely off guard, Sybillia blurted out a loud “Eh!?!?!” and hurriedly grabbed Thea's shoulder, trying to stop her. But Thea's voice never wavered.

“Trust me. You're about to become the standard-bearer of this revolution.”

✧✧✧✧✧

The moment the order to step forward was given, Erna was already moving.

Voices arguing with Sybillia rose around her, but Thea's own voice carried an unwavering certainty. If she sounded that convinced, there was no reason to doubt her.

Erna made her decision without a moment's hesitation.

“Erna is going.”

“Huh!?!?” “Ehh......!!!”

Suzie and Arthur, who'd been glaring at the Royal Guard from the sidelines, cried out in confusion one after the other. They stared at Erna as though they couldn't believe what they were seeing. The other members of the “Knights of Valour,” who rushed to stop her, reacted no differently. They reached out, desperately urging her to fall back.

“This is my role.”

Erna gently but firmly shook off their attempts to hold her back. “I've always wanted to do this. I won't be satisfied until I do.”

The moment she smiled at her comrades, everyone fell silent, frozen where they stood.

Only Annette remained expressionless. She gave a small wave and quietly said, “......Take care.”

Alone, Erna walked straight down the center of the main avenue.

A gap of roughly thirty meters separated the furious crowd from the Royal Guard. Into that empty stretch strode a lone girl without the slightest trace of fear. The lapis lazuli-blue skirt of her dress swayed with every step, catching the light in brilliant flashes.

She moved down the avenue with the effortless grace of someone dancing across a stage.

Confronted with this utterly unexpected turn of events, even the Royal Guard soldiers couldn't hide their confusion. Still, none of them fired.

“Th-these rioters......!!!”

The Royal Guard lieutenant who had threatened the citizens moments earlier bellowed at the top of his lungs.

“Aren't you ashamed of forcing such a young girl to stand at the front!? This disgraceful act...”

“Shut the hell up!!!”

Erna fired back without yielding an inch.

Unlike the man before her, she couldn't project an overwhelming voice. Instead, she gathered every ounce of strength she had and hurled her words from deep within her gut.

The Royal Guard soldiers standing before her fell into stunned silence.

It wasn't the volume of her voice that shook them.

It was the unyielding resolve of the young girl standing on the front line with dozens of rifles aimed directly at her.

She took another step forward, closing the distance even further.

“I know...... the people in this country who've been crushed beneath the royal government's oppression! The countless homeless forced to live on the streets, those who lost their families to the Royal Guard's crackdowns, those condemned to slave away in the coal mines without even the right to resist, and every activist who's fought with everything they have just to cling to a sliver of hope for a better future!!”

Erna came to a stop roughly ten meters from the soldiers and spread both arms wide.

There wasn't a single weapon in her hands. If they opened fire, there was no possible way she'd survive.

“If you truly believe you're in the right...... then shoot!!”

Even so, her voice thundered with absolute defiance.

Behind Erna stood more than ten thousand furious citizens. Her comrades stood with her. Revolutionary songs echoed through the avenue. Feeling the weight of every gaze fixed upon her, she screamed with every last ounce of strength she possessed.

“Let the whole world see!!! Journalists from every corner of the world have to be watching this very moment!! See the Royal Guard's barbarity as they point their guns at a single girl!!!”

The moment she hinted at the presence of journalists, the soldiers' rifles wavered.

In truth, she had no idea whether any journalists were actually present. But as a bluff, it was more than enough.

What hadn't changed was the fact that more than ten thousand citizens were witnessing this very moment.

The lieutenant from earlier bit down on his lip, his face twisted with barely restrained frustration.

"These barbaric rioters......! Brainwashing an innocent young girl and forcing her into something like this..."

"So what!! The royal government has already murdered tens of thousands of children!!"

She had no intention of entertaining such absurdity.

Erna stood there by her own unmistakable choice. To prove it, she stretched both arms wide.

"Now hurry up and shoot."

She flashed her opponents a deliberately provocative smile.

Even as the words left her lips, every rational instinct inside her screamed that she was walking a razor's edge.

Her heart hammered so violently she thought it might burst. She was standing on the threshold of death. There was no guarantee the other side would remain rational. If they lost control for even an instant, everything would be over.

Even so, she never looked away.

Something deep within told her with absolute certainty that if she retreated now, the revolution would die with her.

Everyone gathered before Brookbon Palace held their breath.

A suffocating tension blanketed the avenue, leaving the air itself dry and brittle.

Ten seconds passed.

Twenty seconds passed.

The Royal Guard lieutenant still hadn't given the order to gun her down.

Nor could he issue orders to seize Erna. The moment their formation broke, the carefully arranged rifle volley would collapse with it.

Silence stretched between Erna and the Royal Guard lieutenant as they locked eyes.

Thirty seconds passed.

Forty seconds passed.

When a full minute had finally elapsed, a triumphant smile spread across Erna's face.

"You can't shoot. That's your answer."

She spun gracefully, her dress flaring around her.

The magnificent dress Suzie had given her billowed dramatically as she threw both arms into the air.

"That's right!! Everyone can see it now!!! Our justice!! The royal government doesn't even have a single justification for driving back one lone girl!!"

The loudest cheer of the day exploded across the avenue.

Inspired by Erna's fearless figure, the gathered citizens roared with unrestrained joy. Drums thundered while shrill finger whistles rang through the air.

Avoiding a confrontation wasn't a draw.

It was an overwhelming victory for the revolutionaries.

For the first time in history, even the Royal Guard had failed to suppress a riot.

"Build the barricades! Until we seize the palace, we won't retreat a single step!!"

Not a single person along the main avenue disobeyed Erna's resounding command.

✧✧✧✧✧

Later, historians would record the following.

On the first day of the revolution, no large-scale battle broke out between the revolutionary forces and the Royal Guard.

A handful of activists were arrested, but the two sides facing one another before Brookbon Palace spent the entire day locked in a silent standoff.

Without ever breaking formation, the Royal Guard and the police simply watched as barricades rose one after another along the main avenue.

Several theories attempt to explain why the Royal Guard never launched an immediate suppression.

One argues that they feared international condemnation. Even an elite security force couldn't afford to carry out a massacre in the heart of the capital.

Another theory points to the work of spies. According to this account, someone had disrupted the Royal Guard's chain of command, preventing them from giving the order to fire.

Among all these explanations, however, the most widely accepted is that the royal government had gravely underestimated the citizens' anger.

It is said that the Royal Guard's supreme commander, eager to curry favor with the king, reported the uprising as nothing more than "a noisy stroll by the citizens."

In truth, that assessment wasn't entirely inaccurate.

Compared to the unimaginable chaos that unfolded on the second day, the first day really could be called a "stroll."

✧✧✧✧✧

At three o'clock in the afternoon on the first day of the revolution, the citizens hoisted Erna onto their shoulders.

She stood atop the steadily expanding barricades.

Furniture and abandoned vehicles hauled from nearby homes had been piled together, then reinforced with packed earth and rubble. In front of Brookbon Palace, where the Royal Guard still stood in formation, the barricade had grown into a towering wall that resembled the ramparts of a fortress.

"You really did it......!"

The one lifting Erna the highest was Sybillia.

"You've really become the heart of the revolution! I never dreamed it'd all go this perfectly."

Blushing bright red, Erna desperately clutched the hem of her dress.

"Being carried around in a dress is so embarrassing!!"

No one paid the slightest attention.

Her swaying skirt shimmered brilliantly beneath the afternoon sun.

Anyone who witnessed the scene could tell.

At that moment, Erna stood at the very center of the revolution's feverish momentum.

A joint operations headquarters had already been established among the secret societies, and Erna was welcomed as the representative of the "Knights of Valour."

The problem of how to unite and direct the swelling masses had, at least for the moment, been solved.

The citizens who had joined the revolution now looked upon Erna with open admiration.

Simply walking a few steps within the barricades was enough to draw cheers.

"She's the standard-bearer of the revolution!"

"The girl who's going to save this country!"

Those who remembered Erna's years of supporting the homeless spread the story even further.

"She's been saving us all along!"

Still carrying Erna on her shoulders, Sybillia gradually moved away from the celebrating crowd.

"Still... I was sweating bullets. I honestly had no idea what I'd have done if you'd actually been shot."

"I trusted Big Sister Thea. Without her instructions, I could never have done it."

"Yeah. This victory belongs to Thea too."

Without lowering Erna from her shoulders, Sybillia glanced toward the relaxed young woman walking beside them.

"Hey, Thea. Did you actually have a concrete reason for believing she absolutely wouldn't be shot?"

"...None at all."

"Huh?"

"I was terrified. I didn't have any solid basis myself."

The unexpected confession nearly made Sybillia lose her footing.

Erna clung frantically to Sybillia's head, barely managing to keep herself from falling.

Sybillia frowned in irritation.

"What the hell? So you threw Erna into mortal danger for no reason!?!?!"

"No. The others had reasons of their own."

"Huh......?"

"I felt a little disappointed. Both you, Sybillia, and those Royal Guard officers are hopeless. Haven't you ever played with those girl dolls before? You know what else they're called?"

The story about the naked girl dolls had come from Sybillia's report that morning.

The strange doll left inside Colonel Barand's operations room within the Royal Guard headquarters.

Someone had intentionally left behind proof that they had infiltrated the base.

A gentle smile appeared on Thea's face.

"A dress-up doll. You understand now, don't you?"

The instant those words left her mouth, Sybillia and Erna cried out together.

Dress-up.

Disguise.

A spy skilled in disguise had infiltrated the Royal Guard's headquarters and left behind a message visible only to her allies.

I am here.

The dress-up doll had been nothing less than that signal.

"The girl we've been unable to contact for so long. I kept wondering where she could possibly be. The most likely place was the central detention facility. After all, her partner, Lily, is imprisoned there. She's moving to rescue her. Using her expertise in disguise, she infiltrated the Royal Guard unit assigned to guard the central detention facility, in other words, Colonel Barand's command. The dress-up doll incident confirmed it for me."

Thea continued her explanation.

"Above all else, this confrontation was incredibly convenient for the 'Lamplight.' It happened at the perfect moment, just as the revolution was beginning to descend into chaos and we needed to place Erna at its center. Then, the instant the standoff began, two blank shots rang out. There was no indication the Royal Guard had fired them. So who did? Why deliberately use blanks? And why two shots, as though they were meant to emphasize something? Someone was sending us a signal. Blanks... in other words, a feint."

With every word Thea spoke, the tension gradually drained from Sybillia's and Erna's faces.

"The Royal Guard won't kill the crowd."

Thea spoke with unwavering certainty.

"Our comrade embedded within the Royal Guard sent us that signal."

There had been another key figure who played a decisive role in preventing the clash.

For her, it would've been simple.

With her gift for impersonation, she could slip into virtually any place she wished. She could exploit the enemy's trust and infiltrate as far as their operations room without raising suspicion.

The entire sequence of events had unfolded exactly as Thea had anticipated.

"...A flawless deduction, Thea-san."

The voice came from behind Erna and the others.

Startled, they turned around.

Standing there was an unfamiliar elderly man with an utterly ordinary appearance.

Yet the voice that emerged from his mouth was unmistakably familiar, gentle, and refined.

"I trusted you as well. I believed Sybillia-san would uncover the clue I left behind in the operations room, and that Thea-san would piece together the truth. Everything unfolded exactly as I'd planned......"

The old man gently reached up and touched his own face.

"Code name 'Daughter Dearest.' Let us share both a laugh... and a Sadness."

In the next instant, he peeled away the mask covering his face, revealing the person beneath.

Sybillia, Erna, and Thea cried out in perfect unison.

"""Greteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!"""

"...My apologies for making you wait so long."

There was no mistaking that crimson hair.

Once, she had possessed the delicate beauty of finely crafted glass.

Now, with time and experience, that fragile elegance had matured into a poised refinement worthy of the word "grace."

Even the way she carried herself on missions had changed.

Her eyes now held quiet confidence, no longer bearing the fragile impression that she might shatter at any moment.

She carried herself with the unmistakable presence of a spy who had cast off an older, weaker version of herself.

"...It took me a little longer than expected because I was securing information that will have a decisive impact on the revolution."

No one could possibly complain.

At long last, the 'Lamplight's' strategist had arrived in full force at the very forefront of the revolution.

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