Dear Not Cunning Witch

Part 2

The tent was dark.

She suddenly began lighting the candles one at a time. The candles, illuminated one by one in a clockwise direction, pushed the darkness to the edge of the tent. The night, which had yet to be fully pushed away, vigilantly threatened the light by opening its ominous maw, but the candlelight, lit by magic, did not extinguish so readily. Twenty candles in a circle stood their ground against the ferocious night.

Hester was kneeling at the center of the circle of candles. Her weary gaze was resting on a simple altar, and an inconsolable sorrow was hanging from her tightly pursed lips. She did not move a muscle, as if she was a statue of stone. Only the star chart, laid out in front of her, tracked the traces of the stars and sought out their light.

Hester was in deep contemplation. What could she do to ensure Diana’s safe rescue? How did she render the wicked Niolo Pagliacci powerless? Regrettably, she was unaccustomed to combat. Like the rest of her naïve academic brethren, Hester, too, was a witch who had devoted her life to and was crazy for magical research. Astronomy, her specialty, was one of the most difficult subjects out there, but it was not a field apt for battle. It was easier for her to turn a hummingbird into a crocodile than it was for her to actually kill it.

But Niolo Pagliacci was another story. He was a criminal who had murdered many of their renowned brethren all in the name of dueling. And, not only had he survived an entire decade in Gwaltiello Velli, where it was impossible to use magic, but he had even managed to successfully escape the prison. It was only natural that he would have an extraordinary sense for battle, as he not only specialized in destruction magic, which was meant to harm others by its very nature, but had also fought countless times with his life on the line against the religious zealots of Gwaltiello Velli.

This was why Hester could not simply run into the train. It was only obvious that she would die an untimely death if she faced Niolo Pagliacci unprepared. It would be good if she ran in blind and somehow managed to save Diana in so doing, but what happened if she died before she could save Diana? Diana may be Griselda Sol’s daughter too, but there was no way that the cold-hearted king would agree to take on any additional risks just for a completely ordinary witch. Diana would almost definitely be abandoned by the Ingram military if Hester wasn’t around.

But then, what should she do? Even the birds, which had been keeping tabs on Niolo Pagliacci’s whereabouts for her, had stopped reporting back. Presumably, Niolo Pagliacci had regained his magic and had gotten rid of the birds flying suspiciously around the train.

Ultimately, Hester had nothing left but her star chart. She needed to figure out a way to render Niolo Pagliacci powerless no matter what so that Colonel Oxley was free to order the army inside the train. The Colonel had lost many more men than he had anticipated, and he was unwilling to risk dozens more lives just for one young witch. Judging by how the colonel had proposed they summoned over the wizards who guarded the border, it was apparent that he did not intend to move his army while Niolo Pagliacci was still able to use magic.

The wizards who guarded the border. Hester quietly repeated their names in her head. They generally stayed in Banzè or the northern border, and they were the few rare wizards who did have some battle experience. As Colonel Oxley had suggested, it was possible that they might be able to subdue Niolo Pagliacci.

But Hester did not have the time to wait for them. Not only did she doubt that the king would really send over more wizards when there was already a witch and wizard present who both had their names written in the White Hall but she also didn’t have the leisure to simply sit back and wait for reinforcements to come. She needed to do everything she possibly could. Hester could not bear to do nothing, not when Diana was suffering just a few hundred meters away.

In the end, that was the only thing she could do.

Hester straightened herself out and raised her head. An altar made from Jorg silicastone for its base and with an offering of fresh water sitting on top. It was both an altar meant for sending prayers up to Dulcinea, the King of the Stars, and a symbol of the King’s advent.

 

‘You have a younger sister, my child.’

 

Her late mother’s voice from over a decade ago echoed in Hester’s ears.

 

‘That child doesn’t know her mother, so you should be her family instead.’

 

Hester recalled the promise she had made to her dying mother. It was an oath she had sworn to the dead, and it was a vow she must keep even if she died. Perhaps it was the only thing that had sustained her life all these years.

The flames, which had been gently nibbling away at the candles, suddenly raged. All the darkness that remained inside the tent was forced out as twenty suns shone in their brilliance. The light was glorious, as though it meant to illuminate the way ahead of the King’s advent.

It didn’t take long before the candlelight slowly subsided. Slowly, Hester stood up. Her grey eyes, which had settled into a composed light, calmly judged her circumstances.

Just then, she felt someone’s presence by the entrance. Hester did not turn around and used magic to sweep aside the cloth instead.

“What is it?”

The soldier hesitated. It was only after Hester finally turned around that he gingerly handed her a slip of paper.

“A certain gentleman asked me to deliver this to you.”

Hester stared down at the memo in silence for a while before she replied,

“And where is this gentleman now?”

 

Hester quickly made her where over to where the soldier directed her, and she saw his familiar silhouette before long. She pondered for a moment before she hesitantly said,

“……Oliver.”

Oliver immediately stopped in his tracks. Hester walked over to him and calmly pushed the slip of paper out toward him. She continued,

“You sent me this, yes?”

Oliver looked to the memo anxiously as he nodded.

“I know you didn’t want to see me, but I still had something I needed to tell you.”

The contents of the memo had been written by Oliver’s hand, but they had ultimately been Diana’s words. Diana had asked him to tell her sister that she would be a little late.

Hester thought. Why you, of all people? There were so many people on that train, and they all made it out safely, so why must you be the only one running late? There are so many wicked people in this world —too many to even count—, so why were you, a good-hearted child, the only one who couldn’t escape from that hell?

“You’re right here……. So why is Diana still there?”

Hester muttered quietly. She was not returned a response.

 

* * *

 

“W-what?”

Diana replied with a shriek. Niolo tilted his head to the side as if he found her strange.

“Why are you so surprised? My request was perfectly reasonable, no?”

“W-well, that’s…….”

“You might be a wandering witch, but a witch is still a witch —so you must surely have a quill pen and a bottle of ink with you. Are you acting like that because you’re afraid that I might not give it back? Don’t worry. I don’t know what kinds of rumors you might have heard about me, but I’m not the kind of person to rob others.

Diana found it difficult to believe, as he was still the criminal who had robbed over ten of their brethren of their precious lives. Niolo sighed and changed his tone when Diana hesitantly stared back at him. He continued,

“Fine. There’s not much I can do if you don’t believe me. But why don’t you work that little head of yours and think for a bit? If you keep turning down my ‘requests,’ then I might get annoyed and just kill you before I turn the entire car upside down to look for your belongings. That’ll be a detriment to the both of us. Don’t you think?”

Then, Niolo spread his arms out in an exaggerated manner.

“But if you obediently lend me your quill pen and ink, the I’ll be sure to give them back to you just in the same condition as before once I’m done with them. I’ll compensate you for ten times the price if I accidentally ruin either of them. You may be premature and lacking, but surely you can still see which choice is more advantageous to you?”

Diana was distraught. Niolo was acting nice, but he was practically choking her with his thinly veiled threats. Diana was powerless, and she had no choice but to do as he asked.

“Okay. I’ll lend them to you…….”

Niolo smiled in delight as he tussled her red hair with his large hand.

“Good. Now, hand them over.”

“Right now?”

“When else were you planning to lend them to me? Ten years from now?”

Niolo’s voice suddenly soared upward. Diana startled like a frightened little bird.

“N-no. That’s not what I meant —I meant that I don’t have them with me right now. They’re in my bag…….”

“And where’s your bag?”

“In the passenger car, probably.”

And so, the two of them embarked on an untimely night stroll. Every car they passed through was a wreck, and some of them even had the soldiers’ corpses sprawled about. Diana squeezed her eyes shut every time she saw a corpse, and Niolo dragged her forward by the arm in irritation.

It wasn’t long before they finally reached the first-class passenger car. But Dianna simple stood hesitantly by the doorway.

“I can’t find it because it’s too dark.”

“What a tiresome little thing you are,”

Niolo muttered as he threw a magical fireball in the air. The dark passenger car immediately brightened up. But Diana still didn’t move immediately until Niolo’s vexed voice pushed her from behind. Niolo continued,

“Do I need to move your legs for you too?”

Diana stepped meekly inside the passenger car.

The passenger car looked like a hurricane had gone through it. Diana managed to return to her seat after jumping over the piles of rubbish strewn about everywhere, but, like the other seats, her seat was filled with multiple pieces of luggage whose owners could not be ascertained. She swallowed back a sigh as she removed things like newspapers, embarrassing nightclothes, and a withered apple core from her seat. It was only then that she could finally see her bag resting quietly beneath her seat. She stopped herself just before she reached out to it.

Why did he want a quill pen and ink?

Quill pens and ink were tools that unfortunate witches or wizards used if they couldn’t manifest magic with their will or words alone. It was a way of giving shape to spells through a complicated drawing containing formula, figures, and the Abado tongue. But Niolo Pagliacci was not one such unfortunate wizard. There was no real reason why a wizard who could cast spells with his will alone needed to rely on quill pens and ink.

But even wizards like him used quill pens and ink in certain situations. Like when they couldn’t cast a spell perfectly with their will alone. In other words, it was when they needed so show additional sincerity before they could manifest their magic. And Diana didn’t even want to think about what kind of spell would require Niolo Pagliacci to show additional sincerity to cast.

‘What happens if my sister gets hurt because of this?’

Niolo Pagliacci knew that Hester was cooperating with the Ingram military now. Diana found herself at a loss as she wondered if her tools might be used to bring disaster upon her sister if she lent them to him.

“What are you wriggling around so much for?”

Diana swiftly turned back around. Niolo was right behind her. He continued,

“Is it in there?”

“Oh, um. Yes, it is.”

Diana quickly grabbed her bag. She only hesitated for a moment before she steeled her heart and began rummaging inside. She was not in any position to worry about others right now. It was her life on the line right now, and more importantly, her sister was not some weak wandering witch like she was. She was getting ahead of herself if she was worrying about the best witch in Ingram when she couldn’t even save herself.

She found the ink easily enough. Diana was looking for her quill pen now. But her long and thin quill pen did not catch in her fingers as easily as she had thought it would. She was beginning to get annoyed. She wanted to upend her entire bag, but that risked her getting killed by Niolo Pagliacci. Even the smallest of mistakes could lead to her crossing the river of oblivion.

But Niolo suddenly spoke up just then.

“Diana.”

“…….”

“Diana Sol.”

Diana forgot how to breathe for a moment. She forced her petrified neck to turn. Niolo Pagliacci was staring closely down at something on the floor in the frozen silence.

She found a familiar bag laying collapsed on the floor alongside a mess of other passengers’ luggage and personal belongings. It was her luggage bag, which she was certain she had put inside the luggage compartment. It wasn’t a very noteworthy bag at all, except for the words written clearly on its handle.

 

Diana Sol

 

Emotionlessly, Niolo Pagliacci muttered,

“So you weren’t Diana Talbott.”

Slowly, he turned around to look at her. His gaze, which lingered on her bag for a while, wrapped around her like vines. It was like a snake was crawling up her body. He continued,

“You lied to me, little miss.”

Niolo promptly walked over to her. His sturdy hand covered Diana’s face before she could even pull away in her bewilderment.

“……Now that I think about it, Griselda Sol had red hair too.”

Diana could not move a muscle. The palm of Niolo Pagliacci’s hand was right in front of her nose. The stench of death surged up her nostrils. He was a prisoner of Gwaltiello Velli who had slaughtered over ten of her renowned brethren, and he would surely take her life in an instant too.

Solemnly, Niolo asked,

“What’s your relation to Griselda Sol?”

“I-I’m not related…….”

“Enough. I can’t trust a single word that comes out of your mouth,”

Niolo replied curtly as he withdrew his hand. The fireball disappeared. The passenger car sank back into darkness as the light that had been illuminating the surroundings suddenly extinguished. Only the pale light of the moon lit the abandoned train now.

 

Diana was anxious as she glared back at Niolo. She commended herself for having deceived the madman Niolo Pagliacci and lived to tell the tale, but she couldn’t help but grow nervous as she watched him earnestly scribbling something down with the quill pen for quite some time now.

Was he about to kill her in the most painful way imaginable? Was he so enraged that his rage wouldn’t subside just by killing her?

Diana did her very best to pacify her anxious heart. But she still thought that her heart might literally jump out of her chest when he suddenly looked up without warning.

“Why are you so startled?”

Niolo rebuked as he threw the quill pen back at her. The black words he had written quickly gathered around her as she caught it without much thought.

“Sign your name at the bottom,”

Niolo said quietly. Diana kept an eye on him as she quickly scanned over the words. Astonishment quickly seeped into her visage.

“……Sula’s Oath?”

Niolo smirked.

“You know a lot for such a young witch.”

Sula’s Oath was a curse created by ancient wizards of the South to guarantee the fulfilment of a promise. It had been handed down in multiple forms because it had such diverse uses, and this was Diana’s first time seeing the original version.

It was a rare and precious spell, and Diana would have normally rushed to study it with a fire in her eyes. But, regrettably, now wasn’t the time for that. Sula’s Oath was a spell that could not be manifest unless both the promisor and the promise signed it. The damage that resulted when any of the parties who had agreed to the promise did not fulfil it was immense.

Diana held back her tears as she signed her name in the air. Her heart stung, like it was being pricked by a needle, with ever black letter she etched.

 

Promisor <<Niolo Pagliacci>>

Promisee <<Diana Sol>>

 

The black letters calmly began dancing in the air no sooner than she had finished signing her name. The scrawling letters, which were already difficult to read to begin with, dismantled and fused into each other repeatedly until all that was left was one long strand of ink that looked like string.

Then, the black ink immediately flew toward Diana’s neck before she even had the chance to settle down. Diana tried to scratch at her neck in alarm, but the black ink had already wrapped around it like a tattoo.

“Stay still. It’ll disappear without a trace as long as you keep your promise. Though you’ll pay a sizeable price if you don’t,”

Niolo said as he touched his fingernails as if he wasn’t talking about anything significant. The blood drained from Diana’s face.

“What promise?”

“That you’ll tell only the truth.”

Calmly, Niolo asked her,

“What’s your name.”

“……Diana Sol,”

Diana barely managed to answer as she held back her tears. Niolo’s questions continued without giving her a chance to rest.

“Your birth star?”

“Callisto, the Star of Darkness.”

“Wait. That part was true?”

Niolo asked, finding it preposterous. But Diana did not have the leisure to let him wound her pride. She felt like she had a knife at her throat. Niolo continued,

“What’s your relation to Griselda Sol?”

“I-I’m her daughter.”

Niolo studied Diana up and down with heavy suspicion in his eyes. It was apparently difficult for him to believe that the shabby little girl before him was related to the great Griselda Sol by blood.

“Then Hester Sol’s your sister?”

“……Yes.”

“And does Hester Sol know you’re here?”

Diana nodded back gloomily. Niolo’s lips twitched.

“Answer the question. Silence doesn’t equate to the truth. You’ll end up having to pay the price if you keep refusing to answer, as you very well know……. Actually, now that I think about it, I never told you what the price was.”

Niolo stroked his chin as he continued,

“If you break your promise —that is, if you don’t tell me the truth—, then the ink wrapped around your neck will slowly begin squeezing. In the end, you’ll slowly choke to death. Though I can’t really explain to you how painful it is to be strangled to death since I’ve never experienced it myself.”

Diana quivered as she closed her eyes. She felt like the ink was squeezing her neck even now. She found it difficult to even wring her voice out.

“……She probably knows. She probably knows I’m here.”

“So it’s a guess. But what makes you think that?”

“There’s no reason for her to come all the way to Penzas otherwise.”

“You sisters must be on good terms,”

Niolo said contentedly. He continued,

“And Hester Sol won’t be able to abandon you too easily if you’re close.”

“What do you mean?”

“It means that the star of fortune has decided to bless me today.”

Niolo stood up from his seat. He had been tall to begin with, but now he was like a towering mountain and made Diana feel faint. Diana was frozen in place as she looked up at him blankly.

“Don’t fret. I won’t kill you for the time being.”

Then, he gladly continued,

“But I guarantee you that your sister will be the last thing you ever see.”

 

* * *

 

At dawn on the second day.

Hugo Alpheus, who had stayed up all night feeding his beloved pet lizard Bamber, walked out of his tent when a particularly loud noise disturbed him. The soldiers were carrying an especially large container of water down the road.

“What on earth are you doing this early in the morning?”

“Lady Hester requested us to bring her the first water drawn at dawn.”

Hugo, who had stopped the soldiers in their tracks, made a curious face. The only reason why a witch would need the first water drawn at dawn was to offer a prayer to the stars. Normally, he would have simply ignored it, but it was a bit surprising for Hester to be doing this when they were busy wracking their brains trying to figure out how to defeat Niolo Pagliacci.

Wizards were known for putting their curiosity first and courtesy second, and Hugo promptly made his way over to Hester’s tent. There, he saw something even stranger. Several soldiers were busy covering her tent with black cloth.

“Sir Hugo?”

Hester spotted Hugo as she walked out of her tent with a steaming cup of coffee in her hands. Hugo immediately walked over to her without hesitation.

“I had a good time last night. But it looks like you haven’t slept a wink, my lady.”

“In which case, it would make us no different.”

They exchange a greeting that others would have found bizarre before they immediately got down to business.

“What are you doing right now? You aren’t planning to offer up a prayer, are you?”

“I mean to do something similar,”

Hester replied as she handed Hugo a thin letter. She continued,

“I received a reply from Gwaltiello Velli just earlier. It seems that Niolo Pagliacci has indeed broken out.”

Hugo read the letter quickly. There wasn’t anything special written in it. There was a brief acknowledgement that Niolo Pagliacci had broken out of prison and a request that he be handed back over to them if they happened to successfully arrest him.

“……To think they let a wizard who couldn’t even use magic slip from their grasp. They must be truly incompetent.”

Hugo clicked his tongue. Calmly, Hester replied,

“We were never planning to rely on Gwaltiello Velli’s assistance to begin with. The wardens of Gwaltiello Velli rule as tyrants inside the prison, but they stand no chance against a wizard outside the prison walls.”

“Well, I suppose that’s true enough.”

But it looked like Hugo still wasn’t convinced. Hester took a sip of her coffee before she flashed a faint grin.

“But I least we can be certain of the wizard’s identity now.”

Hugo stole a glance at Hester. This was the calmest she had been ever since she had heard that her one and only sister had been taken captive by Niolo Pagliacci.

“It looks like you found an answer last night.”

Hugo was not able to use magic in the moment, and Hester was the only person capable of standing against Niolo Pagliacci. Hester was a genius renown throughout the entire world, and it would have been her victory hands down had this been a mere test of magical skill, but, unfortunately, this was not a simple contest to find out whose magic was stronger. More importantly, it was also imperative that they rescued Diana Sol safely.

As a wizard, Hugo expected much from the answer Hester had found. It would be a lie to say that he was not curious to see just how far Hester, the daughter of the great Griselda Sol, would go to protect what was most precious to her. Hester could not summon the winter and throw the heavens into disarray like he could, and, while she was gifted in both astronomy and magical skill, she was ill-matched against Niolo Pagliacci —so how did she plan to subdue him?

“Unfortunately, I failed last night,”

Hester said nonchalantly.

“At what?”

“I tried to figure out a way to put Muzetta to sleep. I tried combining Hagar’s Theorem and Sylvia Drusilla’s incomplete hypothesis, but the angle of the seasonal cross and the placement of the Twin Stars were out of joint.”

“……You calculated all of that last night?”

Hugo made a bitter face. The angle of the seasonal cross was one thing, but it was not easy to predict the location of the Twin Stars. The Twin Stars tended to react to every little change in the heavens.

“It was more difficult to calculate than usual, as it’s not only awkwardly in between spring and summer right now but the heavens are also in disarray because Muzetta is in power.”

Hugo, who had never in his entire life had a good relationship with astronomy, simple nodded back as he paled.

“Then, what was the plan that you ended up putting together? Just what are do you intend to do?”

Hugo eyed the black cloth draped over her tent. Hester wrapped her hands around her cup as she slowly said,

“I will summon Dulcinea.”

“Pardon? Is that even possible?”

Dulcinea was the King of the Stars that was merciful to all. But put another way, being merciful to all meant that it treated everyone equally. Hester may have been born under Dulcinea’s blessing, but there was next to no chance that the King of the Stars would unseasonably appear in the heavens just to reward one witch’s prayer.

“I suppose it isn’t correct to say that I’ll be summoning Dulcinea directly, as I won’t be praying directly to the star itself.”

Hester was calm in her answer. She continued,

“I intend to create Dulcinea flowers.”

Dulcinea, the King of the Stars, was a rare star that only rose in the heavens once or twice a year. Dulcinea flowers bloomed on the ground during those nights to receive the King.

Dulcinea flowers had a magnificent golden glow, just like the star they were named after, and they sang with beautiful voices all throughout the night only to wither away before the next dawn. Thus, the Dulcinea flowers were just as rare as Dulcinea itself.

And Hester had just declared that she would make those rare flowers bloom.

“It’s far better to make the flowers bloom than it is to make a request to a star that won’t answer my prayers.”

“Wait, you mean to make Dulcinea flowers blooms? Pushing aside the matter of whether that’s even possible to begin with, but there isn’t even any guarantee that Dulcinea will rise to the heavens just because the flowers bloom, is there?”

“I have decided to be reckless and dive in even without that guarantee. I have created Dulcinea flowers before. And Dulcinea appeared in the heavens when the flowers bloomed.”

Hugo was rendered speechless.

Until now, it was widely known that Dulcinea flowers bloomed to worship the King of the Stars’ return. It was only natural that Dulcinea flowers bloomed on the earth when Dulcinea appeared in the heavens. If Hester was right, then it meant that the cause and effect of one of the most basic theories was about to be overturned.

Did Dulcinea flowers bloom only when the star rose in the heavens?

Or did Dulcinea only rise when the flowers were in bloom?

A hesitant soldier walked up to them as Hugo was astonished by this unexpected new discovery.

“You might want to see this.”

The soldier handed Hester a white envelope. Hester readily accepted it. But the expression on her face immediately froze stiff once she had read through its contents.

There was a single strand of red hair inside the envelope.

“We found it approximately a hundred meters away from the train. It was probably sent by the enemy wizard…….”

The soldier was breaking out in a cold sweat. Hester simply nodded back without another word. Her completely unreadable grey eyes turned to Hugo.

“Sir, could you please ask Colonel Oxley to ready the soldiers to move out tonight?”

“Very well.”

Hugo readily nodded back. He was still absorbed in correcting the basic theory behind the Dulcinea flowers in his head.

The soldiers reported that they had completed their orders before long. Hester was about to return to her tent when she suddenly turned back to Hugo instead. She stood in the vague boundary between the dark insides of the tent where there was no light and the increasingly brightening morning. A peculiar shadow fell over her clear visage as she stood there quietly.

Then, as if she was uttering a warning, Hester quietly said,

“……Please contact Sir Cedric Jiles at the border if I should fail.”

 

* * *

 

Dulcinea.

According to the old songs and shepherds’ legends, Dulcinea, the merciful King of the Stars, had originally been the lover whom the goddess had loved the most. The goddess was said to have ignored the bravest heroes and wisest scholars and poured out her pure love to Dulcinea, who was said to have been born with a terribly normal appearance. But it was also said that Dulcinea had been born with a beautiful personality. Dulcinea was said to have been a woman who cared for hurt animals and never ignored the poor, and her warm heart had made even her bland appearance look beautiful.

But she had been born a human with a finite lifespan, and the goddess had known that the day her lover would close her eyes forever was always creeping closer. The goddess had worried that her lover would cross the river of oblivion and lose her beautiful personality. And so, just as Dulcinea’s life was about to end, the goddess raised her up to the heavens and placed the most noble crown in the world on her head. The stars, which had been quarrelling endlessly in the heavens, immediately bowed down before her as soon as she was shroud in the brilliant starlight.

Dulcinea was no longer an ordinary shepherd’s daughter. She was the order that would rectify the chaos in heaven, and she was the King that would watch over heaven and earth under the goddess’ authority.

Dulcinea was endlessly merciful as the King of the Stars, just as she had been in life. She did not discriminate and soothed everyone fairly with her starlight, and her gaze looked down on everything the starlight touched. Everyone praised the King and celebrated her.

The merciful Sage King was renowned even in the lowliest of places. This was why a miracle happened on the earth whenever the King arrived. In places where it was not possible for flowers to grow. The shepherds named the flowers, which bloomed without any seeds and only in crystal-clear waters, Dulcineas after the benevolent King. It was so they could worship the King’s advent.

But legends were merely legends.

Hester knew that the legend, which had been passed down orally between generations of shepherds for ages, was just a lie.

Ten years ago, on the day that her mother, Griselda Sol, the greatest witch in magical history, had crossed the river of oblivion for good. Hester had made the Dulcineas bloom by her dead mother’s side. It had been an immensely difficult spell for such a young witch, but Hester had finally taken hold of the magnificently singing golden flowers.

That night, Dulcinea, the King of the Stars, had made its first appearance in three years. The people of the city took to the streets and held a festival, but Hester had fallen asleep with tears in her eyes after having failed to realize her wish. The King of the Stars was impartial to all, and it only loved its precious daughter as much as it loved everyone else. The star had ignored her even on the hardest day of her life, so Hester had stopped wishing to Dulcinea entirely after that. She had decided it was better to realize her wishes herself than to plead with a star that wouldn’t listen to her anyway.

Time had flowed and flowed, and Hester had found herself in the spring of her twenty-fifth year. She found herself standing alone in the dark and silent night once more, just as she had when her mother had passed away. It was, perhaps, the day that she would lose her only remaining blood relative forever, and it was, perhaps, the day that she would join her mother forever.

Hester gradually erased her stray thoughts. Her worry for her sister, her lingering regrets over Oliver, her grief for her mother……. She became dull to the flow of time, and the noises she heard from outside fell farther away from her. And so, Hester emptied herself out. All that was left was her purest form —her origin.

Her magic would begin from her desperate origin.

And soon, a golden flower blossomed from the first water drawn at dawn.

A flower bud grew from the place where there was no dirt, and the petals opened up one after another. The Dulcinea flowers, the most precious flowers in the world, took root and were nourished by the witch’s origin.

Hester, who had been kneeling in prayer for a long time, staggered as she stood up. The golden flowers were glowing aloofly in the dark cave. Hester walked up to them one step at a time before she was finally standing before the tray of water.

The tray had been filled to the brim with water. The water, which had looked black as it settled, was now shining blue. The once-still surface of the water had transformed into the indigo night sky, and there were small specks of starlight, sparkling like salt, appearing from within.

Hester slowly peered down into the water’s surface. There was a gorgeously bloomed Dulcinea at the center, surrounded by the crosses of the four seasons as if they were guarding it. She looked over Adam, the Star of Innocence, and Gellock’s Ladder to the west until she spotted an ominous star that was ferociously expanding its influence.

Muzetta, the Inverse Star.

In an instant, Hester’s eyes were dyed in a golden light. And her solemn voice slipped past her blistered lips to rise to the heavens like thunder.

 

* * *

 

“Your mother was an incredible witch,”

Niolo began whispering affectionately. He continued,

“I met Griselda Sol once when I was thirteen or fourteen. I’d heard rumors that she was an exceptional witch, but she was such a good-natured witch that I found the rumors hard to believe at first. But I experienced first-hand just how great your mother was not too long afterward, of course.”

He smiled a faint smile at the end of every sentence. His happy memories dyed his eyes as he reminisced over the past.

“I hear that your sister’s a remarkable witch as well. But I doubt she can ever compare to your mother’s fame. Griselda Sol was amazing beyond compare. Your mother was the first person in my life who’ve I’ve ever wanted to kill.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Are you trying to say that it’s my mother’s fault that you went insane?”

Diana, who had been silent until now, was exceptionally pallid as she whispered back. She had been in bitter pain for several hours now because Niolo had twisted one of her ankles and sprained it.

“Knock it off. Unless you want me to break your other ankle too.”

“Why should I? You’re going to kill me anyway,”

Diana snapped back sharply.

“You’re wilder than I thought you were, kid. But you still need to have a certain degree of skill before you can show off that kind of nerve. You must be pretty pitiful if you can’t even put a single scratch on me when you should’ve recovered your magic yesterday evening. I’ve no idea how on earth Griselda Sol managed to give birth to a pathetic daughter like you,”

Niolo remarked insidiously as he sent small fireballs flying in the air. It was obvious that he was taunting her.

“I’m pathetic, you say?”

But Diana had spite in her eyes as she glared back at him and suddenly taunted back,

“That’s too bad. And here I thought you were the pathetic one.”

Niolo’s hands stopped in their tracks. His piercing gaze fell on Diana. But Diana simply smiled gorgeously instead of shutting her mouth. She continued,

“After all, you’re a liar.”

“……What are you talking about?”

Niolo repeated himself bleakly.

But just then, an alluring melody slipped past the windows and entered their ears. The voices singing it was so beautiful it was hard to believe it was actually of the world, and the tune they sang was so captivating it was eerie. Niolo immediately opened a window as he felt an ominous chill run down his spine. The clear singing instantaneously rushed in like a crashing wave.

Niolo was rendered speechless by the scene unfolding before him. Brilliantly glowing flowers were blooming enchantingly in the puddles on the ground that he was sure had been covered by the night fog just moments before.

They were golden Dulcinea flowers.

And those flowers only signified one thing. Niolo snapped back to his senses and quickly looked up at the skies. But the heavens were already blossoming anew, contrary to his earnest wishes. Muzetta and its chaos, which had dominated the heavens these past few days, had vanished, and the jolting stars reflected painfully into his eyes as they regained their perfect order.

The moon, which ruled the heavens in the King’s place while the King was absent, slowly disappeared. And the merciful Dulcinea, the King of the Stars, appeared in the sky to rectify the fallen world.

“No…….”

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A murmur escaped Niolo’s lips. He could not believe that Dulcinea had risen while the effects of heaven’s inversion were still at its peak. And he doubted that Muzetta, the Inverse Star, could hold out for much longer now that the King had arrived.

Just then, the fireballs illuminating the passenger car began to flicker. Niolo stared blankly at the bizarrely flickering fireballs before he urgently tried to create new ones. But his hands failed to light a new fire. Muzetta, which had been taking advantage of the King’s absence to expand its influence, had fallen into chaos.

The expression on Niolo’s face twisted into something wretched. It had been better when Hugo Alpheus had summoned the winter. Not only had the winter not lasted very long, but the confusion that Muzetta had brought about had returned with it once the winter had subsided.

But it was a different story with Dulcinea. Dulcinea, the King of the Stars, symbolized the order of the heavens in and of itself, and it would not tolerate the heavens’ disarray. The chaos was over now. The Days of Heaven’s Inversion had ended. Muzetta, which used the chaos to grow powerful, would not appear again for some time.

The strangely distorting fireballs extinguished without warning. Darkness covered the passenger car in but an instant. The sound of two people’s breathing crossed as they stared at each other in the darkness while the beautiful song of the Dulcinea flowers resounded endlessly around them.