16

In the disorderly, ravaged archive left after Darius and Rubelmel, and Kirishiya and Seidel, had departed, only the completely halted Ains and Lizelotte remained.

The many books scattered across the floor were stained with soot.

Without even glancing at them, Lizelotte approached Ains, who still remained halted.

“Beyond partial release, I reached that place. But this was supposed to be my trump card against you. To defeat you, even I had to catch you off guard.”

Lizelotte shifted the folding fan she had been holding into her left hand and opened her right palm upward.

There, a blade like transparent ice appeared.

Taking it in hand, she pointed its tip at Ains.

“…It was not meant to be now. A little further ahead, when I had fully understood my own sorcery, that was when I wanted to stand in the situation of today.”

Lizelotte slashed Ains across the cheek with the blade in her hand.

However, though it should have cut him shallowly, there was neither a wound nor any blood dripping.

“I managed to keep you from peering into my abyss with your own eyes, but I ended up giving you a trigger. Next time, it will likely no longer display its full effect…”

Lizelotte dismissed the transparent blade that had not even been stained with blood.

Even so, she had managed to keep Kirishiya away from sorcery.

Even if she had lost her decisive trump card against Ains, the fact that she had protected Kirishiya was, for Lizelotte, a saving grace.

Her conviction comforted her so.

Turning her back on Ains, Lizelotte suddenly ran toward the haphazard pile of books, as if something had just come back to her.

She dug through the pile of valuable books as though brushing aside worthless trash.

Considering the Lizelotte from before, who had always carried herself with elegance, it was a sight that would make anyone who knew her doubt their eyes.

Even if her clothes were dirtied with soot, she paid it no mind and kept rummaging single-mindedly.

With well-kept, neatly trimmed nails, with soft hands that had never known hardship, she went on moving her hands in utter desperation, without caring if her nails chipped or her hands became filthy.

“…There it is.”

Lizelotte found a single book beyond the pile she had dug through, frantically brushed away the dirt, and hugged it tightly with her soiled hands.

At the same time, she released the sorcery of “Forced Halt” that she had placed on Ains.

Ains’s heartbeat began moving again. Time began to advance again.

He immediately looked around and checked the situation.

He noticed that Kirishiya and Seidel were already gone.

“Ow!”

To Ains, it was a sudden development.

His cheek abruptly split open, stimulating his sense of pain. Reflexively clutching his cheek, Ains noticed that red blood had stained the hand with which he held it.

Ains did not understand why his cheek had been split open, but he guessed that it had either been caused by Lizelotte’s sorcery from just before, or that something had been done to him while he was under its effects.

“Lizelotte, so you really were a true sorcerer, weren’t you?”

Seeing Lizelotte kneeling on the floor with a filthy book clutched to her chest, Ains spoke to her.

Until just moments earlier, Ains’s perception of Lizelotte had been of her standing upright while casting him a severe gaze, but now she was kneeling some distance away.

Considering that Seidel and Kirishiya were no longer there, the effect of the sorcery Lizelotte had used on Ains could be narrowed down to a certain extent.

(…Interesting.)

Even so, exactly what Lizelotte’s sorcery was remained unclear. Ains’s sorcery, the Clockwork Demon Eye, had failed to peer into Lizelotte’s sorcery—into that abyss.

“…Silence. I do not have the leisure to concern myself with you right now.”

Facing the freed Ains, Lizelotte did not so much as turn her eyes toward him, but opened the book she had been clutching tightly and began turning its pages.

Considering the bewitching woman who charmed the opposite sex, the sight was strange indeed as she scanned the contents of the book with bloodshot eyes. And while checking its contents, she kept muttering something under her breath without end.

Turning pages, tracing the letters with her eyes, muttering under her breath. It continued endlessly.

“You said ‘partial release,’ didn’t you? …To think you’ve already reached that point. Lizelotte, just who are you? I don’t know you at all.”

Ains tapped at his temple with his finger while desperately searching through his memories for Lizelotte’s existence, but he found nothing.

Ignoring him, Lizelotte kept muttering.

“…I still understand this part. This too, I remember.”

She muttered, and turned the page.

It went on endlessly, and together with Ains, who silently watched Lizelotte with apparent fascination, the only sound filling the archive was that of pages turning.

Having no choice, Ains quietly opened the item box in his ring and took out a potion. He spread it over his split cheek and healed the cut back to normal.

Lizelotte had seemed as though she would go on forever, but at a certain point her hand stopped. Her eyes fixed in place. Her muttering ceased.

Lizelotte felt a shock as though something deep within the core of her body had been crushed with all possible force.

It manifested in the form of her breathing becoming violently disordered.

With her back to Ains, Lizelotte kept her eyes lowered to the book. Tears streamed from the corners of her eyes.

“…”

Then, slowly, as though savoring what was written there, as though engraving it into herself, she read on. While reading, she murmured slowly.

That continued for a while, and then Lizelotte closed the book and stood up.

She lightly brushed away the dirt clinging to her dress with her hand and turned back to Ains.

By then, the Lizelotte who was usually seen was back.

Ains thought that, now that she had turned to face him, perhaps she was finally willing to answer his question.

“When was it that you reached partial release?”

Ains threw the question at her with a smile, but Lizelotte showed no sign of intending to answer and began walking forward.

“H-hey, wait a second! I waited for you all that time, you know!? The least you could do is answer my question.”

“I do not recall ever asking you to wait for me. You merely stood there of your own accord. That has nothing to do with me.”

Lizelotte kept walking without pause.

“No, no! This is one of those, well… human feelings, I guess.”

“Hmph. You, who think neither justice nor evil matters, you who relentlessly provoked that young girl, speak of human feeling? …Stop playing the clown, Ains. I know you.”

At that instant, Ains’s comical demeanor abruptly changed into a serious one.

“…Oh? So you know me. In that case, all the more so—. Then you know that I’m obsessed with sorcery too, don’t you?”