se to complain."

"Perhaps that's true, but that's not something you should say!"

It was like a murderer saying, 'Even if I didn't touch him he'd die of old age', Leerin felt that it was very unfair, and couldn't suppress her anger.

"Enough is enough, please."

Leerin took a step towards the cat, and Saya stopped her with this sentence.

Though it was a flat tone without any feeling, it bore enough strength to stop Leerin.

"Even if you can't stop this from happening, you don't have any good reason to expect this person to pay the price that we wish. So, I won't allow you to continue insulting Leerin."

"Saya...."

The black-clothed maiden's expression still didn't change, though her words almost oozed tears.

"I know, my mistake."

The almost completely insincere apology made a complicated expression appear on Leerin's face that she couldn't completely calm down.

"....Ah, let's leave it at that. My genuine thoughts and your feelings will be never-intersecting parallel lines however long we speak."

"Then, what is really going on?"

Saya asked this in place of Leerin who didn't want to open her mouth to talk.

"It's a test, did you know?"

The cat was curled up on the sofa, and only the cold emotionless voice resounded in the room.

"With what objective?"

"The performance testing of this child, Airen's eye. This is something even I can't copy. The only way it can be done is to try collecting the pieces of him that were spread around this world."

"That...."

Leerin held down her eyepatch.

"Airen's enchantment of the moon will be broken sooner or later. We need to face Ignasis and the Nano-Celluloids that will escape from there, and relying only on pure force is almost meaningless. We will need a different kind of power."

Everything Erumi said was what the Three Royal Families of Grendan had done up through now.

"You gave that mission to Grendan?"

"This is the first city that I created, and when I created it, I planned to have it act as the last stronghold. When confronting battle, no one would only make armor and not weapons, right?"

"But, Her Majesty...."

The effort of the Three Royal Families of Grendan had almost bloomed in the form of Alsheyra. But, there should have been another factor added, but in some incidental situation it had arrived in Leerin's body.

The situation should have only been like that.

"Haven't you known it wasn't like that for a while?"

"........"

"Do you know what you've done?"

"........"

This kind of tone meant that Erumi knew everything. She knew of Leerin's life so far, and knew of things that Leerin hadn't observed at the time.

"In the battle with Durindana, what did you do for your adoptive father? When you were just a baby, what did you do for the unrelated orphan next to you?"

"Shut up!"

Erumi's words made Leerin block her ears and yell out.

A thorn inside her adoptive father's body had grown into bramble spreading throughout him, and in the end had become Kei strength.

She had given Layfon strength like this before. She hadn't deliberately done so. But, for an immature child to escape a predicament, she had given the strength of a protector to the person next to her.

Leerin could bestow this power upon them.

This kind of ability had no reason to be unusable on herself.

That was the true nature of the battle just now.

Erumi wasn't willing to look at Leerin's wailing. No, she had seen, yet didn't have the slightest sympathy.

She didn't stop speaking.

"Never mind your tragedy for now. The situation just now can confirm that the power of the moon has appeared in your body."

"....Kuh!"

The pain in her heart made her want to roll on the ground. Erumi's words were that cruel, completely ignoring the other party's feelings.

"Erumi."

Saya quietly drew closer to Leerin.

But, her eyes looked at the black cat on the sofa.

"What happened to your heart?"

"That, it's already broken, or perhaps it didn't exist in the first place.... maybe it had already been lost back then? Maybe that's closer to the truth."

Quietly replying to Saya's question, the cat continued speaking:

"Your ability has already been confirmed. Then, everything is ready for my final battle plan."

The cat suddenly raised its face and stood up. It seemed as if it had noticed something in the vicinity, but didn't leave the sofa.

The cat's actions and Erumi's words weren't associated, as expected.

"....Though actually it should already be too late."

"Huh?"

The sudden words felt somehow unbelievable.

"You've also seen it, right? That's why you're awake."

Those words weren't directed towards herself. Leerin looked at Saya.

"Nn, it was mixed with Durindana, and succeeded in entering this world."

Saya also nodded her head.

"....It?"

"Nano-Celluloid Interface 1 L?vateinn. She was created even earlier than Durindana, the prototype of the Nano-Celluloids, and their ultimate ancestor."

"How...."

She hadn't thought that it would unexpectedly have already arrived.

"How can we...."

Leerin had finally made clear, with difficulty, what kind of strength she had. However, with her recent shaking and thinking of the battle with Durindana, she truly wasn't confident that she could completely do what she had to in such an intense battle.

"Don't worry, we shouldn't have problems for the time being."

Leerin had lost the color in her face, but Erumi's following words surprised her again.

"....What does that mean?"

"I also wish to know."

"Ah? Saya doesn't know either?"

"Because I don't have that kind of function."

"Yes, that's true. Then I'll show the image."

Erumi had just spoken, when....

"Wow...."

A black mist suddenly appeared in the center of the room.

Just as Leerin wondered about it, the black mist gave off light, solidifying into an image.

"This is...."

What was reflected there was a moving city seen in the wilderness. The sun rose from the other end of the image as the darkness was erased from the sky. The city was taking steps, moving through this background.

Grendan should currently have just entered nighttime.

However, the city in the scene was already early in the morning.

"Though there's a slight delay, this image is in real time."

"Delay?"

"If I said the world was round, you wouldn't trust me, right? Just listen."

Erumi's words made Leerin displeased, but the city interested her more, so she carefully examined the city.

Leerin had once sat on a roaming bus and seen the exteriors of many cities, so she knew that even just from looking at the outside, every city had its own characteristics.

Then....

"Huh? No way."

She trusted her memories.

Her feeling when she first saw this scene was far too strong, and even if the angle was different, she could recognize this city at first glance.

More importantly, the tower raised high in the center with a clock affixed on top of it was hard to mistake.

"How.... it's Zuellni."

"Correct. The Academy City Zuellni, L?vateinn's location."

"Impossible!"

Leerin involuntarily yelled:

"Layfon, he.... is there.... why, why...."

Why was it like this?

"In order to keep him from being involved.. I thought this would let him stay outside of things, so I...."

Only because she had thought like this had she pushed Layfon away.

"It came to this because he's very strong, so it's all my fault. So, I don't want him to fight again, I don't want him to be hurt...."

It was only because she thought this way that she had pushed Layfon away.

"But, why is this! Why!"

"Please keep calm, it's unseemly."

"Don't tell me what to do!"

"Don’t worry, she hasn't gone there to destroy."

"....Huh?"

Erumi's words made Leerin suddenly calm down.

"Look at this."

After Erumi said this, the image changed to a different scene. The scene slowly closed in to the city, slowly focusing from a district, to a building, and then to a single room.

"This is L?vateinn."

Next, the image showed the figure of a single girl.

She was about the same age as Leerin. Though her expression was a bit flat, she was quite a beautiful girl.

"....Huh?"

Perhaps she was preparing to leave in the morning, as the girl who seemed to have just changed into her uniform hung a bag over her shoulder and walked towards the entrance.

"No way, she...."

Because Durindana from before was obviously a gigantic creature.

"To her, form doesn't have much meaning in the first place. In order to control the half-crazed Nano-Celluloids in the Zero Territory on the other side, they all take such giant forms. But humans definitely can't take that kind of form. That's the situation."

Erumi continued explaining:

"Though it's only a hypothesis, I think that L?vateinn could be growing stronger there. If she can integrate with all of the Nano-Celluloids in a scattered state that are produced, she might have already gathered all of the information in the world."

"How...."

It was hard to believe.

Regardless of if this girl and Durindana were similar beings.

But Erumi said she had already gathered all of the information in the world.

It was something hard to believe, like a joke.

However, the truth wasn't a joke.

In the image, the girl who walked towards the entrance stopped her feet. She didn't seem like she had forgotten to bring something. Leerin thought that the girl was only suddenly stopping, but she simply stayed stationary without moving. That kind of situation couldn't happen during the tight morning time.

Then, the girl abruptly turned her head.

She didn't turn to behind her.

She turned to Leerin who was watching the image.

"She shouldn't be able to see the image here, because I'm using Nano-Celluloids like her."

"But...."

She was looking over here.

If the girl hadn't noticed the gazes from here, then she would have been looking near the edge of the room's wall and ceiling.

In the time-tight morning, what reason did she have to look there?

Leerin couldn't think of one.

The girl moved.

"Ah...."

The abnormal situation of the expressionless girl meeting her eyes through the image made Leerin freeze in place.

....However, the girl's action freed her from doubt.

If the girl had simply returned her gaze to the entrance and left for school, perhaps Leerin would have thought the situation just now was only her overthinking. However....

The girl gazed at Leerin, and moved her mouth.

The image didn't convey sound.

But, her mouth movements weren't fast, and the sentence was very short, so the meaning the girl wanted to express couldn't be mistaken.

Don't get in the way.

The girl, L?vateinn, said this.

This sentence was said to Leerin through the image, and she feared that the girl also knew Saya and Erumi were there.

"Hah...."

The cat made noise. Though it was only a sigh, a glimpse of fatigue could be sensed from the seriousness it held.

"I barely managed to block her from destroying our Nano-Celluloids."

"As expected, did she deliberately not come here?"

"It seems like it. Ah, I probably could have guessed."

Saya and Erumi spoke, and Leerin could only stand to the side blankly staring at the broken image.

"That's L?vateinn....?"

Even the black mist that had showed the scene had already disappeared, and only the presence of the brutally ravaged room was left behind.

But, that image had indeed just been shown.

She was in Zuellni with the form of a girl.

"Why....?"

In Zuellni?

Not only this. The reason why L?vateinn was in Zuellni was the one question, but why would she take the form of a normal person to live the life of a student?

"Why? Weren't the goals of those people to destroy the world?"

To the Nano-Celluloids like L?vateinn, and to Ignasis, the master of the Nano-Celluloids, this world was a giant cage imprisoning them.

In order to obtain true freedom, they had to destroy the moon and prison that Airen had created at the cost of his own life, and destroy the gate that was this world.

By now, it seemed like the moon was about to be destroyed. Durindana had appeared, L?vateinn had also come to this world, and only Ignasis was left to escape the prison.

The enemy's power that was to be feared the most was L?vateinn.

"....Is that the situation?"

"Nn, correct."

Erumi confirmed Leerin's words.

"We don't need to include Ignasis in the enemies' power. Though it would be troublesome to fight him in Zero Territory, as long as the battle's on this side, and we keep L?vateinn from destroying this world, we have no reason to fear him. We only need to think about how to defeat L?vateinn."

"....Therefore, why would L?vateinn...."

"Well...."

Erumi interrupted Leerin's words.

She was being evasive, Leerin felt. Erumi had just deliberately dodged Leerin's words.

Leerin had evidence for her thinking.

"....I remember you just said 'I probably could have guessed'."

Had Erumi thought that Leerin wasn't paying attention and hadn't heard that?

However, Leerin hadn't missed it.

"I wouldn't have thought you were so competent. If possible, I feel that it would be a bit better for you not to know this, hm?"

"I don't want you to decide that kind of thing for me."

Leerin didn't want Erumi to decide anything for her again. Being fated to confront this being that she couldn't rely on her own strength for had brazenly distorted her life.

Moreover, Erumi was the culprit of this fate.

"Tell me."

Leerin glared at the black cat with the mood that 'if you don't tell me, I'll kill you and screw everything up'.

"Alright, not bad."

Erumi said simply.

"It's not that I didn't say it to conceal it from you, only that I feel that knowing this will make you unable to fight well."

"Don't let that bother you."

"Oh, then I'll tell you."

Then, black mist once again appeared in the center of the room, and a white light appeared, a scene appearing as well.

There was a female in the image.

"She is...."

She greatly resembled L?vateinn.

However, her age was different. Compared to the girl from before, the person currently shown in the image was older.

A mature woman.

Other than this, there was something else that also differed.

Though the scene that was shown was a picture or a still image, it could be seen that this woman was different from the girl before, as her face had a rich expression.

"Her name is Janice Courtbach. The reason Airen became like he did was because he joined the Severed Space Investigation Plan. This woman was a volunteer with him at the time."

"Janice....?"

Her name wasn't L?vateinn?

"Janice appears to have been different from Airen who had lost his sister, given up, and no longer wanted to live. With an overly adventure-driven heart, she voluntarily joined the mission, jumping into Zero Territory, and then went missing."

Whether she hadn't noticed Leerin's doubts, or noticed but deliberately ignored them, Erumi continued speaking, while Leerin silently listened to the explanation that followed.

"Well, for the same mission, Airen and Janice went through the same training curriculum. But, in order for them to adapt to the environment of Zero Territory, there was a man who carried out body enhancement on them. His name was Soho."

The image showed another still picture. A picture taken together with Janice showed a puny, weak-looking man.

"He was an excellent scientist. After the plan suffered a setback, he returned to his lab, and completed the Nano-Celluloids that I had theorized and later thrown to the side."

"You came up with the Nano-Celluloids....?"

A dangerous term like body enhancement made Leerin frown, but it made her even more curious.

"Didn't I say I only theorized it? I only thought of such a theory in order to convert Aurora particles, also the so-called pollutants, into energy. Nano-Celluloids are completely based off this theory, and they became military weapons.... In the end, Soho was an excellent engineer, and he had developed a favorable impression of the woman Janice whom he had met during the Severed Space Investigation Plan."

Favorable impression. Leerin hadn't thought that such a word would come out of Erumi's mouth.

"But, like I just said, Janice Courtbach disappeared in Zero Territory, and her feelings died. Regretfully, she wasn't the kind of person who could easily handle her feelings. If she couldn't get something, she would do it herself. She was like that, so she was the same as me."

"'Do it herself' means.... huh?"

Leerin felt puzzled for a moment. Leerin could understand the kind of feelings of sorrow at thinking that the person she loved could have already died. But, she couldn't understand that in that case, she would 'do it herself'.

"That's not right."

"Is it strange to fill the wound in order to forget the sorrow of loss? It's like using new love to forget the old. If the wound formed isn't filled, it will bleed forever. In order to avoid bleeding to death, the wound has to be filled with something."

"........"

"If you think her behavior wasn't something a normal person should have done, then you're wrong. A normal person couldn't do this kind of thing. So, she...."

The image followed Erumi's words, adding on another still picture.

The picture of this person was very similar to the picture in the beginning, but had a decisive difference. It wasn't a matter of different clothing or expression. Just by looking at the picture, one could clearly realize that the two images gave off different atmospheres.

Leerin couldn't feel anything from this image.

"The first Nano-Celluloid that they created, and their prototype. The ultimate ancestor and governor of the Nano-Celluloids, Nano-Celluloid Interface I L?vateinn, was created."

"L?vateinn."

This picture really was L?vateinn.

She was physically exactly the same as Janice, but they didn't seem like the same person. Because, the feeling given off from her body was like a doll, not the presence of a human being. Moreover, since L?vateinn was something created, since her looks were so much like a human, just because of this, she could be called a genuine doll.

A doll that could move on its own.

"Well, the protagonist of this story has finally debuted. At the time there was a group of people whose bodies were affected by the Aurora particles, though to a lower degree than Airen, and their special characteristics awoke, and were called Abnormals. The Nano-Celluloids were used as weapons to expel the Abnormals, because they had become enemies along with Airen."

"Did Airen and that Janice person know each other?"

If he fought an enemy with the face of an old friend, could he have felt pained?

"Who knows? In either case, he fought till the last, so I think that even if there was a problem, Airen probably overcame it. Right, Saya?"

"Correct, he indeed had his struggles."

Saya nodded agreement.

"But Airen's not important, the important point now is L?vateinn."

Erumi pulled the conversation back on topic.

"The Nano-Celluloids can change Aurora particles into energy, proliferating endlessly. Thinking that Nano-Celluloids couldn't go against the will of their creators, people used them in the Zero Territory. But, an error occurred that they hadn't expected. The biochemical machinery of the Nano-Celluloids unexpectedly developed the ability to think individually, taking actions against their orders."

"Which was?"

"I think, therefore I am. Where did we come from, and where are we going? The reasons for existence. Just like humans being troubled by many things, L?vateinn also doubted the reasons for her existence. What she couldn't understand wasn't her original mission as a Nano-Celluloid, but the reason she was such a form."

"Form...."

Possessing a peculiar form didn't make L?vateinn feel superior, that she was a chosen existence. Just by being the first Nano-Celluloid, she was already a special existence.

The important point was, why was she this kind of form, that was the question that L?vateinn cared about.

"L?vateinn obtained the form that the creator loved. But, when she realized that Soho felt despair towards her appearance, it produced a desire to completely reproduce Janice Courtbach to a greater level."

Leerin didn't know and couldn't experience what kind of feelings that man named Soho had. Just by comparing the two pictures, she could see how much the two women differed.

Their shape was the same, but that didn't mean they would become the same person, because their expression, demeanor, and temperament were very important. Moreover, expression and demeanor were created by the feelings the person felt during their life.

Thinking of this, an idea emerged in Leerin's mind.

"It couldn't be that L?vateinn still thinks of...."

"It's very probable."

Was staying in Zuellni to further understand humans?

"Up till now, L?vateinn hasn't succeeded in reproducing human characteristics. She almost breached the orders to retrieve Janice who had disappeared in Zero Territory, but the plan failed, and she had also misinterpreted human nature."

"Nature?"

"Just like Soho creating L?vateinn, was it enough for external appearance to be the same? Even if it were only a momentary thought, she still made that kind of conclusion, so she listened to Ignasis who had claimed Soho's body, and then everything continued till now."

"....Huh?"

The man in the picture was Ignasis?

"Perhaps, she was testing whether the conclusion she had made herself was correct, so she listened to Ignasis who lived in Soho's external appearance."

"Even if the form's the same, the inside is still different, right?"

"Correct."

The one who nodded her head in agreement this time wasn't Erumi, but rather Saya.

"But if we say so, L?vateinn is the same. Though our reasons are different, I'm the same kind of being."

"Ah...."

Leerin had heard before that Airen had entered Zero Territory to look for his sister, and Saya's external appearance had become exactly the same as hers because she had received his influence.

"The same form doesn't imply the same heart, right? Perhaps that was the desired answer she received after submitting to Ignasis."

Machines trying to become human. However, the way L?vateinn was born was different from humans, so she planned on gaining a human heart with a non-human method.

What kind of being was the so-called human? She endlessly thought, tested, thought, tested....

"But, if it's like that, hasn't the reason for L?vateinn becoming a human already been lost?"

That man called Soho who had created L?vateinn's appearance hoped for the person possessing that appearance to return to his side. However, he himself had disappeared in the process.

Not only this, L?vateinn also served the person who had killed Soho.

Thinking this, Leerin couldn't help from feeling sorrow, almost sympathizing with L?vateinn.

"Even so, she still wants to destroy the world?"

"She will destroy the world."

Erumi answered.

"Why?"

"Because if she doesn't she has no way to continue advancing."

"Advancing?"

"Since she was created as a being who cannot be redeemed whatever she does, she can only think of how she can tidy up the residues of her existence. This is her guiding question."

"Correct."

The reason that L?vateinn wished to become Janice was Soho, who was already dead.

"Even so, she still can't give up, that's why she's there. Then, we can only fight with her, right?"

Leerin didn't understand, she could only shake her head.

"But...."

Saya murmured:

"Then, what exactly is she doing in that city?"

Leerin and Erumi couldn't respond to that question.

◇

Erumi and Saya suddenly disappeared.

"The test has succeeded. I'm very satisfied even with just this."

As she departed, Erumi said this.

"The fate of this world is in your hands. I leave it to you to decide how to deal with this fate."

"........"

"I've prepared the battle well for you. You decide whether you want to fight. In the end, this battlefield has nothing to do with me."

The voice informed her of this with an almost frank tone.

After the cat left the room, Saya also quietly departed.

Leerin felt that the atmosphere in the room had returned to its original state. Erumi had probably done something to this place just now.

Erumi's words were quite serious.

But, Leerin cared about something else compared to that seriousness.

"....In the end, what goal does L?vateinn have?"

A strong presence closed in from the other end of the residence. The Queen would soon arrive, and Minse who was in the building had also begun taking action. Erumi had somehow cut off this space by some means, and when it was restored back, the surrounding presences begun moving at the same time.

As Leerin heard those sounds, she crouched down in place, while examining the injuries of Eldein who was fallen by her feet.

"Fill the hole."

Not retrieving the things lost, but blocking the hole in one's heart with something else.

Was this the right way?

"But.... I'm sorry."

She still didn't have that kind of feeling. Even if that kind of blank space had already buried itself in her heart-->>

next page