Chapter 202 - <9>
When Anna awoke, everything before her was white.
"Where... am I?"
She murmured softly, sitting up and giving her head a little shake to dispel the veil-like mist that still hung before her eyes. When she slowly opened them again, she found herself in a neatly made bed with pristine white sheets and a blanket of soft, white fabric.
Her memory was hazy. She had no idea where she was, what this place was, or even what time it was.
Confused, she stood up from the low bed. The feel of the white floor directly on her bare feet was pleasant and helped to wake her up. The hem of her long skirt brushed lightly against her ankles, and she realized the clothes she was wearing weren't her own, but a pure white one-piece dress.
With its puff sleeves and slightly open neckline, the dress was cinched just below her bust, not constricting her body at all, and it felt smooth and easy to move in. She didn't own any clothes that felt like this. But she had worn something like it before.
In the royal palace, Queen Patricia had dressed her in clothes made of this material. Silk, she thought it was called. She walked unsteadily to a dressing table and stood before it. Her own dazed reflection stared back at her. Unfamiliar clothes, an unfamiliar room, and her hair, neatly combed and silky smooth.
"...Where... am I? I was with someone..."
As she murmured, her consciousness came rushing back.
She had been taken by Kuchiba. She remembered being lifted into the air and screaming, but after that, her memory was a complete blank.
The last image seared into her mind before she blacked out made her cover her face.
The sight of the person she loved, groaning and writhing as he was consumed by pitch-black darkness, and the shadows of Giants and Goblins creeping ever closer.
Was Ritz... okay? Had he been saved?
Standing before the mirror, she bit her lip. If she didn't, she felt like she would start crying.
It had been a nightmare situation that had descended upon them suddenly while they were out shopping. When they had finally escaped into the alley, she had felt relieved, thinking everything was okay, just like always.
She had been so relieved, thinking they had managed to get through it like they always did. She was supposed to tend to his wounds, just like always, and then they would meet up with their friends. She had thought this whole situation would become just another funny story to tell.
While she was treating his face, her eyes met Ritz's. She had been so captivated by those deep, dark brown eyes, the gentle look he reserved only for her, that she hadn't been able to look away. She loved Ritz so much it hurt, a painful ache in her chest.
At that moment, she had desperately wanted him to kiss her. To gently cover her lips, just like he had in Suien. Did he realize she had been so flustered, on the verge of begging him for a kiss?
After that, her heart had been pounding so hard she couldn't control it. Did he realize how flustered she had been by her own reaction?
Did he realize that was Anna's biggest sign of affection?
He must have known, but to keep her from panicking, he had surely pulled her into his usual embrace and kissed her cheek instead. He seemed to think he was helpless when it came to his own feelings, but he was truly a kind person.
The warmth of his strong arms, the feel of his broad chest that made her feel so safe and enveloped... it still lingered all over her body.
A tear fell to the floor with a soft pat.
Ritz might not be alive anymore.
"Ugh..."
A sob threatened to escape, and she desperately held it back. If she cried now, overcome by Ritz's absence and the sense of loss, it felt like her horrible imaginings would become real.
When you think of things in a bad way, they really do go in a bad direction. When you think of things in a good way, they really do go in a good direction.
That's what her adoptive father had said.
So Anna had always tried her best not to think about things in a bad way. Perhaps now was the most important time to put that into practice.
She shook her head violently, as if to shake off her own bad thoughts.
To suppress the sob that was about to rise in her throat, she exhaled deeply. After a painfully long exhale, she took a deep breath.
She couldn't cry. If she thought Ritz was dead, it would become a reality. If she believed that he was definitely alive and coming to get her, then he would absolutely appear before her, safe and sound.
She had to believe that.
She exhaled deeply again, then took a huge breath in.
At the same time, she told herself firmly.
He's fine. There's no way he's dead. I haven't heard his answer to my homework yet, and I haven't properly told him my feelings. We haven't even fully understood each other yet, so there's absolutely no way Ritz would die.
"Ritz isn't dead, he's definitely okay!"
She chanted it out loud, wiping the corners of her eyes where tears had pooled and the tear tracks on her cheeks with her fist. Then she sniffled loudly.
"When I see him next, he'll smile and say 'Looks like you're okay,' just like always. Then he'll hug me and stroke my head! Absolutely, definitely, definitely!"
She raised her fist and chanted even louder, as if to convince herself.
"Okay! I have to go!"
She made fists with both hands and nodded with determination. She wanted to know if Ritz was safe. And if possible, before he came to get her, she would escape from here and return to everyone.
Looking around again, she saw that the room was quite spacious. But it was frightfully bare, with only the bed she had just been sleeping in, the dressing table in front of her, a writing desk and chair, and a round table in the middle of the room for meals.
But nowhere in that large room were any of Anna's precious belongings. The Silver Staff entrusted to her by the queen, the bag filled with various foods that she had carried with her so carefully—none of it was there.
Of course, that was to be expected. She had only intended to go sightseeing in the city, so she hadn't brought anything with her except the food bag.
Would Franz and Edward bring the Silver Staff? No, were the two of them even safe right now? Knowing Kuchiba, it wouldn't be surprising if he had sent the Giants after them.
"I can't just stay in a place like this by myself, can I?"
She muttered with determination and looked around. There was no one in the room. In a room with so little furniture, there was nowhere to hide, so she had known that from the start. And this room had a door, but no windows. The only way out was the door.
But there should be a guard at the door. So first, she had to figure out how to deal with the guard. But it was usually Ritz or Edward who came up with such plans, and Anna didn't even know what to think about.
She paced around the room for a while, her newfound energy threatening to spin its wheels, but a good idea didn't come to her so easily. In fact, she didn't even know what she should be thinking about.
She sighed, and suddenly a pang of hunger hit her.
"...First... food?"
She was a little relieved that she got hungry no matter the situation. Whatever the current situation was, it was several times easier than that time when she had been completely at odds with Ritz and had lost her appetite. Because their hearts were connected, she could believe and fight.
That being said, she didn't know who to ask for a meal. She sighed and sat at the dining table, murmuring towards the door.
"Bread and soup, a fried egg, a salad, and plenty of honey would be bliss..."
She sighed, and it felt like she could smell just that. No way, she thought, looking around. On the writing desk against the wall was exactly what she had just said.
Beautifully baked white bread, the likes of which she had never seen before, tomato soup, a fried egg, salad, honey, and also milk, orange juice, a water pitcher, and cutlery wrapped in a napkin.
"...No way..."
She looked around, but there was no one there. She had already confirmed that. Which meant... someone was monitoring her current situation, and that person had delivered it by some means.
...But who, and how?
She looked around, but there were no peepholes or anything of the sort. In fact, there wasn't even a small door or anything where the food was placed. She went over and touched the wall, but there were no seams.
But right in front of her was a delicious-looking breakfast set.
She debated for a while whether to eat it or not, but in the end, she decided to eat. If she didn't, no one else would, and it would be a waste.
After one bite, she realized she had been quite hungry and finished it all in a flash.
Judging by how hungry she was, it was safe to assume that a considerable amount of time had passed since she was captured. After all, before being captured, she and Ritz had been eating their way through the city.
After finishing her meal, she carefully wiped the plate that had held the fried egg—the sturdiest-looking one—and the plate that had held the bread with a napkin and held them. Anna had no weapons, but if there was a guard outside the door, it would be better to have something like this as a makeshift weapon.
After all, there was no atmosphere that suggested she could use spirit magic. She couldn't feel the presence of spirits to a frightening degree. So she needed a weapon.
If you asked her what she could do with a plate, that was the extent of it, but for some reason, she was too scared to use the knife or fork, fearing she would deeply injure her opponent. Even with a plate, she could probably catch someone off guard and hit them.
"Thank you for the meal."
Knowing full well there was no one there, she still gave her thanks to whoever was watching, and then headed for the door of the room. Just before she put her hand on the doorknob, she paused.
She had a plate, but there was no way the door to a hostage's room would be unlocked. The thought almost made her lose all her energy, but she decided to give it a try and turned the doorknob.
To her surprise, the white door in front of her opened with surprising ease.
"Oh, it opened."
She muttered, completely taken aback, but then steeled herself, telling herself not to let her guard down. There had to be someone watching outside the door.
She cautiously peeked her head out and was once again deflated. There was no one outside the door.
"...I'm a hostage, right?"
She couldn't help but murmur. The last time she had been taken hostage in Faldina during the incident with the court painter Sabatieri's inheritance, she had been locked in a securely bolted room with a guard constantly posted outside the door, changing shifts. She had thought that's how it was for hostages.
But thinking about it, this was very lucky. If no one was there, she could explore freely.
Careful of the hem of her skirt, which was considerably longer than what she usually wore, Anna decided to explore the building. First, she needed to figure out where she was.
If Kuchiba had come straight back, then this was the temple where the High Priest was. In other words, the place with the holy land that she and her companions were aiming for.
If not, then she had to find some way to let her companions know. She had no idea how to let them know she was here, but she had to walk and see.
Anna stepped out into the long, continuous corridor. The corridor, uniformly white, was brightly lit by a white light coming from an unknown source. After walking down the sterile corridor for a while, she found a door on the right side. It was the same as the one to her room.
She opened it gently and found a white space. It was probably about the same size as her room, but there was no furniture and no one inside. And again, there were no windows. It seemed there was no way to see outside at all.
"...Wouldn't it get stuffy?"
She muttered. Anna had grown up in a drafty orphanage, so she found it more comfortable when air circulated freely from outside to inside. Being sealed up like this might be warm in the winter, but it seemed like it would be hot in the summer.
She realized she was thinking about something completely unrelated and shook her head. More importantly, she had to find out where she was.
She started walking down the sterile corridor again. As before, the left was a white wall, and doors occasionally appeared on the right. Most of the rooms behind those doors were empty. She was a little relieved to find that there was no danger, but the sight of so many empty rooms was starting to feel a little creepy.
She couldn't understand at all why they would leave so many rooms open and polished to a brilliant white.
Moreover, the corridor was so frightfully quiet that even Anna's bare footsteps were noticeable. For a place this large, it should be bustling with people. In fact, the royal castle in Sears was just as large, if not larger, but it was always full of life with soldiers, government officials, and attendants.
After walking for about ten minutes, the corridor finally turned left. Looking back the way she came, she saw a straight white corridor stretching on and on. Her room was probably somewhere in the middle of this passage. Its sheer length made her feel as if the corridor was endless.
Just then, she had a strange feeling that she had seen a sight similar to this before and tilted her head. She thought for a moment and then remembered.
"It's the labyrinth from the 'Infinite Nightmare'!"
That vast, white space. That feeling of losing all sense of distance. Come to think of it, the one who created that labyrinth was Franz's master, Orphe.
She involuntarily stopped in her tracks.
She had been so worried about Ritz that she had forgotten her exchange with Kuchiba. He had said that Anna was the child of the god worshipped by the Clan of Darkness.
She sighed softly. She had thought she was on a journey to find her parents. Why had it turned out like this? She had never wanted her parent to be a god. She had just wanted to meet the mother who gave birth to her and the father she was related to by blood.
And if they were living happily, she wanted to tell them that she was also living happily and return to her adoptive father. And if they were unhappy, she wanted to make them happy. But if her parent was a god, she didn't know what to do.
In the first place, what kind of life does a god live? It was certain they weren't poor, but beyond that was beyond her imagination.
She thought it was useless to think about it, so she tried to forget, but all sorts of things got mixed up and came to mind, so she couldn't forget.
A god shouldn't be human. But they don't seem to be demi-human either. So what is a god? And what is she, who is said to be his child? In terms of appearance and way of thinking, Anna had never thought she was different from other humans. She had always thought she was a normal person. Even if she was suddenly told she was a child of god, she couldn't understand at all what that meant.
And if she was the child of a god, why was she in an orphanage?
If there was a god and Orphe was his servant, could it be that Orphe was the one who left her at the orphanage? If so, it made sense that Orphe was in Saradio. The one who traded most actively with the Village of Vishnu was Saradio. He could definitely find out if Anna was doing well by asking the villagers from Vishnu who went to sell their highland vegetables.
If that was the case, it meant that when they first met, she had been easily deceived by Orphe into thinking it was their first meeting. If so, looking back now, it was very cunning. If he had told her then, her journey would have ended in Saradio.
But if it had ended there, she wouldn't have met the person she loves now. Edward, Patricia, Lira, Dill, Kenny, Altman, Joe, Greig. That would be bad too.
And Ritz would have ended things thinking of Anna as a troublesome ward. In Saradio, their relationship of trust hadn't been fully established yet, and Ritz never showed his true feelings.
Probably, if Orphe had told her there, "You're the child of a god, you know. I brought you here from the god's place. Your parent is a god," she would have been stunned and taken back to Vishnu by Ritz. That was an outcome she didn't even want to think about.
All the hardships and experiences she had accumulated, all the memories surrounding her now, were very important to her. She was separated from her companions and in a place like this now, but she didn't regret her journey. Because the person she was now was precious to her.
...But if something had happened to Ritz, she wouldn't think that way.
At that thought, the image of Ritz, wrapped in the jet-black darkness created by Kuchiba, struggling in agony, flashed in her mind. Just remembering it made it hard to breathe, and she frantically tried to think of something else, taking a deep breath. She exhaled deeply and shook her head.
"Okay, I'm calm... huh?"
Something white caught the corner of her eye, and she hurriedly looked in that direction. A woman from the Clan of Darkness, dressed in white, was standing there. Anna instinctively raised the plates above her head and braced herself, but the woman's face tensed, and she silently knelt without a sound.
"Huh...?"
The Clan of Darkness member's unexpected action threw her off balance. It was so confusing. A hostage was escaping, so she had expected her to come chasing after her in a panic.
As Anna stood there, the woman remained kneeling and spoke without raising her head.
"Was there something you required?"
"...Required?"
"I have been ordered to assist if the Princess requires anything. Was the meal not enough?"
It was only when asked that she realized she was still holding the plates above her head, and she hurriedly lowered them.
"N-No, that's not it. It's okay."
"I am glad to hear it. Then I will take the plates."
"Please do."
She handed them over instinctively, then panicked. Now she had no weapon. But the woman respectfully took the plates and then knelt again, her face downcast.
"Um, I'm not that important, so..."
She thought her own words sounded foolish, but the woman didn't even crack a smile and spoke without raising her head.
"It is not possible for the Princess of our god to be unimportant."
"Oh, right..."
It was so different from her usual position that she had no idea what to do.
"Um, have gods and such come here before?"
It was an even more foolish question. Kuchiba had said that the god was in the god's country, so there was no way he would come to a place like this. But the woman's answer was different.
"It is said that he comes once every few decades. We do not know when or for what purpose. But as a sacred place where our god comes, it has always been purified by our bloodline."
So that's why the empty rooms were so cleanly purified.
"Are you on cleaning duty?"
"Yes. Our family takes turns purifying it."
"Our family?"
"The direct family line that produces candidates for High Priest."
"Um... so, are you from the High Priest's bloodline?"
The woman nodded at the question.
"Yes."
"Then, are you related to Kuchiba?"
"Yes."
She couldn't help but stare. She had a very cold image of Kuchiba's relatives, but that didn't seem to be the case. It seemed that even among the Clan of Darkness, people were people.
"So, were you the one who took care of me?"
"No. My duty is to purify this floor. I know nothing else."
"I see..."
She nodded, a little disappointed that the woman knew nothing, and then noticed something.
"So you came from another floor?"
"I came from the floor below this one."
Apparently, there was a floor below this one. If she went to the floor below, it might be different from this special structure, and she might have a chance to escape. She would be able to learn much more about the lower floor than this special white space, and she would also be able to see what the Clan of Darkness was doing.
"Can I go to the floor below, too?"
She asked abruptly. The woman froze as if she had turned to ice, then shook her head violently.
"You must not."
Surprised by the vehemence of her refusal, her desire to go to the floor below did not fade. It felt like her only hope.
"I really want to go. Please."
"You must not."
"Why?"
"If the Princess were to come downstairs, it would cause chaos."
"I'll be quiet."
"That is not the issue. Our god never descends below this floor."
The woman shook her head stubbornly in refusal, lowering her forehead even more. Anna pressed on. Usually, she would quickly accept that something was impossible, but this time was different. Her friends were surely looking for her. So she wanted to do everything she could.
"That's just what the god does. He just hasn't said he wanted to go down, right?"
"That is..."
"So it's not forbidden, is it?"
"...That is correct."
"Then let me go to the floor below!"
She just wanted to get to a place with a window. She wanted to confirm where this place was and if she could escape. If she couldn't escape, she at least wanted to be in a place where she could see her surroundings so she would notice when everyone arrived.
The woman fell silent, just pressing her forehead to the floor as if in prostration.
"Please."
She decided to press a little further, kneeling next to the woman and waiting, staring at her intently. The woman prostrated herself on the floor.
"I am deeply sorry."
"Is it really impossible?"
"Please, I beg your forgiveness."
The woman seemed to be afraid of something. Perhaps there was some absolute rule here that Anna didn't know about. If she broke that rule and forced her way to the lower floor, this woman might be punished and suffer terribly. Anna's personality made her reluctant to cause such trouble.
But if that was the case, did she have no choice but to wait quietly in this empty white space? Feeling a mix of complex emotions—impatience, an unbearable sense of oppression, and fear—Anna slumped to the floor.
"I am deeply sorry."
The woman remained prostrate and did not move. Thinking that she might stay like this until Anna left made her feel sorry, and she gathered her waning energy and staggered to her feet.
"I understand. I'm sorry for being unreasonable."
"I am deeply sorry."
Anna quietly passed by the still-prostrate woman.
She had thought all members of the Clan of Darkness, like Laria, Raven, and Kuchiba, were scary, but this was the first time she had met someone like this. Her stubborn refusal, even while feeling fear, in order to follow the rules was not so different from them. But why did the Clan of Darkness try to start assassinations and wars? What was the truth they wanted to protect?
Anna had no idea.
After walking listlessly for a while, she looked back to see that the woman was gone. One of the doors probably led to the stairs downstairs. But in this endlessly repeating scene of a door on the right and a white wall on the left, she had no idea which door it was.
In fact, she no longer even knew which door she had come out of.
The thought made her feel helpless.
There was no one here but Anna. Anyone would do, even a stranger, just to have someone walking around would be a distraction. But if she could wish, she wanted her friends, her companions. Being with them had become so natural that being alone like this made her realize just how precious they were.
Suddenly, she thought of Ritz again and felt like crying. It would be wonderful to have her companions and friends with her, but when she was truly lonely and wanted someone to help her, the one she wanted by her side was Ritz. Not her adoptive father, not her companions, but that one person.
She shook her head, trying to ward off the tears that were about to fall again.
Don't think bad thoughts! Think good thoughts!
She told herself and looked ahead. She hurried forward and saw the second corner coming up. That corner also turned left. She hadn't checked, but she had a feeling it was a right angle.
"...If there are two more corners, this is a square corridor, isn't it? Will I end up back at my room?"
She said it out loud and then turned the corner. She expected to see the same white space continuing, with doors on the right and a wall on the left. She sighed and looked down the corridor, only to see that the far end had a slightly different shape from what she had seen so far. The wall, which had been blank, was different.
From here, she couldn't tell anything other than that something was different. In that case, she had no choice but to get closer and check.
Her pace naturally quickened, and soon she was running.
She ran through the white space, out of breath. Her bare feet made almost no sound. The silky fabric brushed softly against her thighs.
She reached the source of the different shape and stood there, panting, in a daze. A huge gate had been built into the white wall. There didn't seem to be a door on the other side of the gate.
"An entrance in a place like this?"
In the center of the gate was a hemispherical object, about the height of Anna's waist, that looked like half an eggshell placed upside down. The part that would be its legs was made of four pointed shell parts.
"What is this?"
She tore her eyes away from the incomprehensible eggshell and saw beautifully polished white male and female statues on either side.
A woman, wrapped in a light, thin cloth that fluttered in the wind, smiled gently, and a man in a similar attire.
Anna recognized the female statue.
"...Is this a statue of the goddess?"
The statue of the dignified woman looking up at the sky had the same form as the goddess statues placed in the holy lands of the other demi-human races, but this goddess statue was a little younger than the mature ones she had seen so far, and her hairstyle was different. Her hair was straight and long, just like Anna's. The goddess statues were usually depicted with soft, fluffy hair.
And the male statue standing opposite her was probably the Darkness Spirit King.
But the goddess and the Darkness Spirit King were smiling at each other peacefully.
"I've never seen anything like this..."
Usually, the Darkness Spirit King was depicted as an enemy of the goddess.
In fact, most of the mythological paintings in Yuresla depicted the Darkness Spirit King as an evil being to be sealed by the goddess, and the legacy of Dill's father, the court painter Sabatieri, also depicted such mythological figures.
"Come to think of it, the legends passed down by the demi-humans are a little different from those passed down by humans, aren't they?"
She remembered that much, but it was Franz's role to take notes and save such things, so she didn't remember well. If she had known this would happen, she should have remembered it properly.
"And this Darkness Spirit King, he looks like someone..."
She murmured, touching the statue of the Darkness Spirit King. It was pure white, so it was hard to get a real sense of it, but she tried her best to imagine it with color in her mind.
First, he was much taller than the goddess. He was tall. And since he was the Darkness Spirit King, his skin color would be brown, in keeping with the Clan of Darkness. Inevitably, his hair would be black. Then his eyes would be dark brown...
"Oh, I see. He looks like Kuchiba."
Kuchiba had said he was a descendant of the Darkness Spirit King, so it was natural that he looked like him. But she couldn't imagine Kuchiba with such a gentle face. Rather, if she replaced his skin color with a sun-tanned wheat color, he looked very much like Ritz. That was also natural, since he was Kuchiba's nephew.
But the more she stared, the stranger she felt.
This statue of the Darkness Spirit King looked frighteningly like Ritz. Much more so than Kuchiba, the High Priest of the Clan of Darkness, whom she had initially thought he resembled.
And the goddess statue looked like her. If you made Anna a little more mature, would she be this beautiful?
"N-No way. I shouldn't be beautifying myself that much."
Even though no one was there, she frantically denied her own thoughts out loud. She touched her cheek and found it slightly warm.
No matter how much you love Ritz, you can't be superimposing your images on these things, she told herself, and placed her hand on the half-eggshell-like stone statue, which was just the right height for leaning on.
"Honestly, me..."
"Would you like to enter?"
"Huh?"
An unfamiliar, strangely high-pitched voice spoke to Anna. She looked around, but there was no one there.
"Did I hear things?"
She murmured, and the voice spoke again.
"Biometric authentication complete. Available for use at any time."
"Who are you? Where are you?"
Feeling creeped out, she pressed herself against the wall, hiding behind the eggshell-like object. The eggshell-like object rotated halfway.
"Huh?"
"I am here."
As it spoke, the eggshell-like object spun around as if to assert its presence. She instinctively crouched down, grabbed the strange object with both hands, and spoke to it.
"...Is it you, by any chance?"
"Yes."
The object that replied flashed green and red lights in its translucent head. Perhaps those were its eyes. She had never seen such a strange creature in her life.
"Um... are you alive?"
"If you are asking if I am an organic life form, the answer is no."
"Organic life form... what's that?"
"A life form composed of organic matter."
"Organic matter..."
"Mainly composed of protein..."
"Sorry, I don't get it. So what are you?"
"I am a WO-T Model."
"Um... what's that?"
"A machine."
"A machine...? Like a weaving machine?"
The only machine Anna had in her life was something like that.
"Incorrect. The material is..."
"It's okay. It's okay. Thank you."
It was all so complicated, and the more she asked, the less she understood. She was at her wit's end. Maybe Edward would know something.
"Then I'll call you T."
"Understood. I am T."
It was an unknown creature, but giving it a name made her feel like they could communicate somehow. It was the same as when she used to name her stuffed animals and dolls.
"Um, are you the guardian of this gate?"
"Yes."
"Is there a door inside that I can go through?"
"Yes. Would you like to enter?"
"Yes!"
Finally, she could leave this white corridor for another space. Just that thought made her heart leap, as if she could escape the suffocating sense of oppression.
"Then, will you open it?"
"Understood."
T readily agreed and extended a thin metal arm from under its shell towards the seemingly blank white wall. It looked like a crayfish, she thought in surprise. Just being able to talk was amazing, but she was impressed by how complex machines were.
Eventually, the thin arm touched somewhere, and a part of the wall peeled away to reveal something with a series of numbers. T was skillfully manipulating it.
"Wow... that's amazing. I don't understand it, though."
"I am honored by your praise."
"Has no one ever told you that before?"
"No."
"I see."
Suddenly, she had an idea. If this was a divine realm, maybe she could learn something by asking who else had come here. If Orphe's name came up, it would confirm that he was either a god or a god's servant.
"Hey T, who came here before me?"
She thought it wouldn't answer, but T answered readily.
"The High Priest, Kuchiba."
"Oh, right. Of course."
There was no way Kuchiba, the only one who could speak with the god, wouldn't have come here.
"Did anyone else pass through?"
"No."
"Oh, I see."
It was a bit of a letdown. T, who had been performing some kind of task while responding to her questions, silently withdrew.
"Opening."
As it spoke those words, a dazzling light flooded the space in front of her. The sudden situation made her instinctively shield her eyes with her palm. She had thought the white corridor was bright, but compared to this light, she realized for the first time that it had been dim.
As her eyes adjusted to the light, Anna slowly removed her palm from her eyes, and an unexpected scene spread out before her. The place, filled with a dazzling light, was teeming with trees and flowers in full bloom. Were these spring flowers? The ground, dyed with plants bearing soft, small, gentle pink flowers, was covered in short grass.
Soon, the strong scent of green reached Anna's nostrils pleasantly. The sound of birdsong came from somewhere. It was unmistakably the scene of a forest.
"Amazing..."
She had never imagined that such a magnificent forest lay beyond that corridor. She looked up at the sky and was surprised. The entire sky was fitted with glass, forming a large lattice window. In other words, this was indoors.
"T, are we inside a building?"
"Inside the temple."
"Is it like a greenhouse?"
"The meaning is the same."
It was speaking in complicated terms again. She knew she wouldn't understand, so she didn't ask any further and took a step forward. The soft undergrowth gently cushioned her bare feet. The cool, damp sensation of the gentle earth calmed her heart a little.
The forest near her hometown was also a rich forest like this. It was a nostalgic and cherished memory.
"T, can you guide me?"
"Yes."
T blinked its red and green lights and entered the forest. She was worried it would get stuck, but after a while, it stopped and extended four legs. This made it look much easier to walk.
"T, you're amazing."
She said in admiration, and T blinked its lights.
"I am honored by your praise."
She didn't know if it was happy or not, but she decided it probably was, and she followed T's round form.
She thought it took about twenty minutes to walk down one side of the corridor. The next corridor was about the same, so this must be a garden that was twenty minutes long and twenty minutes wide. Thinking that, she estimated it was about a kilometer long and a kilometer wide.
It took her twenty minutes to get from the small stream at the edge of the village to the bottom of the orphanage hill, so her calculation was probably correct.
"What a magnificent forest. I can't believe this is inside a building."
She muttered, looking around. Even though there was a ceiling, the light pouring in from it was natural, and she even felt a breeze from somewhere. If the ceiling didn't have a frame, she would have surely thought she was outside.
After strolling through the forest for a while, she started to get a little worried about the non-stop T. Where was T trying to take her? She had no idea.
"T, wait up. Where are you going?"
She asked, but it just blinked its red and green lights and moved on, as if telling her to follow. After walking for several tens of minutes, she suddenly came out of the forest into an open area. There was a beautiful spring there, reflecting the green of the surrounding forest like a mirror.
"Beautiful..."
She peered in and saw clear water bubbling up from the bottom.
"Wow... a spring..."
She was about to put her hand in when she realized.
"This is indoors, right?"
She turned around to find that T was gone.
"Huh, T?"
She looked around and saw T trying to get around to the other side of the spring.
"Wait up."
She hurriedly chased after it and found T standing quietly at a certain point. There was a stone monument there, half-covered in vines and crumbling. A jewel was embedded in the center of the monument.
"...This..."
Speechless, she touched the stone monument. It was unmistakably the stone monument of the Eye of the Spirit King, placed in a holy land.
"It's supposed to praise the Spirit King... and in a country with such strong faith in the Darkness Spirit King, why?"
She murmured, and T, who had been silent until now, spoke.
"This is a tombstone."
"...A tombstone...?"
She repeated T's words and bent down to read the characters carved on the stone monument. Just like in the other holy lands, there were characters carved on it.
"'I am here.' Does that mean the Spirit King is here?"
"The Spirit King is the husband whom the goddess loves. Our god is protecting this place."
"What does that mean...?"
Her finger, which had been tracing the tombstone, touched another set of characters carved on it. Looking again, she saw that there was a sentence carved there.
"'The founder of my clan, the Darkness Spirit King, sleeps here.' So the Darkness Spirit King is not the god of the Clan of Darkness?"
Confused, she turned from the stone monument to T, only to see a figure there that made her recoil. Kuchiba was standing there, quietly watching her. She stared at him, speechless. Kuchiba's lips curved into a slight smile as he spoke to her.
"The Darkness Spirit King is our god, Princess."
"Kuchiba!"
"Welcome, Princess, to my holy land."
Anna glared at Kuchiba, who smiled with a relaxed and confident air.
"Let me go back from here!"
"To the land of heaven, then I can let you return, but...?"
"That's not it, to my companions!"
She had rarely felt such a surge of anger before. But looking at Kuchiba, she was uncontrollably furious. She couldn't stand his condescending attitude towards her companions.
And if she wasn't angry, she couldn't overcome the fear that Ritz might be dead.
As if knowing her feelings, Kuchiba chuckled softly.
"What's so funny?"
"Are you that scared?"
"...What?"
"Of the death of your precious failure."
For a moment, she couldn't breathe and stumbled back, leaning against the stone monument. Had her worst fears come true? But Kuchiba twisted his lips slightly and shook his head.
"Unfortunately, your knight is quite stubborn."
All the strength drained from her body at Kuchiba's words. He was still alive. He must have somehow overcome that situation. When she imagined how he had managed it, she could picture the gruesome scene, but more than that, she was happy that he was alive.
But as if to trample on her joy, yet with an annoyingly reverent air, Kuchiba smiled.
"But it is only a matter of time."
"Why!"
"As long as they are in this country, they will be constantly attacked by our warriors and wolves and grizzlies. An ordinary person would not last a week."
"No..."
"They were never qualified to enter this country in the first place. The child of a defector who once abandoned this country, a failure, is out of the question."
Kuchiba's expression twisted.
Failure... he meant Ritz. For some reason, Kuchiba always made this face when he talked about Ritz. Anna stared at him, and suddenly, a thought struck her.
"Could it be... you like Ritz?"
"...What are you talking about?"
Kuchiba frowned as if deeply offended. Seeing this expression only strengthened her conviction.
"Because you look so, what's the word, bitter, or resentful... All those feelings seem to be directed at Ritz, but that's not it, is it? It seems like those feelings are really directed at yourself."
Kuchiba's eyes widened slightly in surprise, then he tried to erase his expression as before. Before his face could completely return to normal, Anna added more words.
"Could it be that you deeply regret it? That you couldn't stop Lady Ciela from leaving this country?"
"Wha—"
"Is that why you make that face when you see Ritz? A face like you're hiding your self-blame and deceiving yourself?"
Kuchiba resembled Ritz. That's why Anna, who had been watching Ritz for so long, noticed. Kuchiba's thin smile, with its twisted lips, was very similar to the self-deprecating smile Ritz would give when he was trying to deflect Anna's attention while thinking of her.
She had seen that expression quite a bit in Suien, so she was used to Ritz's such expressions. She felt she could catch a glimpse of the fragment of Ritz's self-deprecating smile in Kuchiba's thin smile.
After a while, Kuchiba, who had lowered his eyes slightly, ran a hand through his bangs and then smiled.
"You are too kind. You may be seeking the same kindness and humanity in me, but unfortunately, I have no intention of helping your companions for such reasons."
"That's not it, that's not what I mean!"
"I am a servant of my god. I no longer hold such sentiments."
Kuchiba stared at Anna with his usual cruel smile. Anna met his gaze head-on, and Kuchiba averted his eyes slightly. He probably didn't realize it, but he did things that were very similar to Ritz. When Ritz wanted to deflect Anna's pursuit, he would smile in the same way while looking away.
While feeling the blood connection between the two, she continued to stare at Kuchiba, but he remained silent. Anna was the first to give in and speak.
"...This monument, you said it was the tomb of the Darkness Spirit King, right? If that's the case, then your story about acting on a god's command is strange."
But Kuchiba's expression didn't change. So she added more words.
"Could it be that there is no god, and you're trying to do something personal to Lady Ciela and Ritz? Because the god is already dead!"
As she declared this, Kuchiba made a deliberately surprised expression, as if he had heard something absurd. She sensed he was making fun of her, but she suppressed her emotions and continued to glare at him. Looking down at her, Kuchiba opened his mouth.
"...So you think I'm trying to kill Moegi and her child because of some complex feelings I have for them? And that I'm pretending to be a god for that purpose?"
"I'm not going that far, but it would make sense. Luring Ritz here, and using me as bait to do so, because my existence would cause him the most suffering. That's why you pretended I was a princess, right?"
"Then you are an ordinary orphan. Not a special existence..."
"...Am I wrong?"
If so, it would be proof that Anna was ordinary. Even if she was called a princess or a child of god, for Anna, it was a distant world that could not be. But if the actual Spirit King was not there, and Kuchiba was trying to erase a past grudge, then it might be possible.
She looked up, and Kuchiba laughed.
"What's so funny?"
"That is a sophistry you have created because you want to believe it so."
"No... but..."
"The Darkness Spirit King is the god of our Clan of Darkness. But that is only on the surface."
"On the surface...?"
"Yes. The Darkness Spirit King is our ancestor. This is the truth. I have heard that the Darkness Spirit King died, leaving our clan on the earth."
"Then what is your god?"
She asked without looking away. Kuchiba smiled, the calmest she had ever seen him. It was a smile that felt more severe than cold.
"My god is the god who inherits the will of all the Spirit Kings and the Goddess, who lives eternally and protects all of humanity."
"...So there was another god who isn't in the myths?"
She asked, stunned by the new information. Kuchiba nodded.
"That is correct, Princess. The god whom the successive High Priests of Darkness have served is the Omniscient God who rules over all. The god governs the principles of all things. And you are his daughter."
She was so stunned she couldn't speak. A god who lives eternally... still exists above in the heavens. And that god was her parent.
Did that mean that Anna... was an eternally living being?
At that thought, a tremor ran through her entire body.
To live eternally...
A lifespan that would not end even after all her acquaintances had died, the world had changed, and people had changed.
A life that might continue even after Ritz, who feared his long lifespan, had died.
The tremor running through her body would not stop.
She had told Ritz she would be with him, but that was because she thought she wouldn't live that long. But to be told that she might actually have a near-eternal lifespan filled her with fear.
"You should have more respect for yourself. If you wish to deny yourself, that is fine, but I will not permit you to deny the god."
As she hugged herself and trembled, Kuchiba ordered T.
"Take the Princess back to her room."
"Understood."
A single board emerged from T's smooth side as it approached and stopped. Anna was placed on it. It seemed to be a chair, but more than anything, her own existence was terrifying. She had never known that knowing something halfway could be this scary.
She learned for the first time that not being told properly what kind of being she was and how long she could live would lead to an unbearable sense of fear.
"Princess. I am ready to send you to the god at any time. When you have made up your mind, please command the WO-T."
Unable to reply to Kuchiba's words, Anna was taken back to her room by T. Only confusion and fear remained.