Editing City Series:Volume6d Chapter2 (section)

===Part 2===

“…?”

The woman frowned and adjusted the position of the harp on her left shoulder, but she didn’t speak a word.

Instead, she heard a voice from the bushes. A woman’s high-pitched voice.

“Sorry. Did I surprise you, Lillie?”

The bushes parted and a woman in a black military uniform stepped out. She brushed her brown hair back with a hand and stopped in front of the bushes.

The two women faced each other. The first to speak was the one holding the harp – Lillie.

“Jeanne? What brings you here?”

“I saw those dragons on my way to Hamburg, so I decided to have Karl stop and pay you a visit on my own. You can see his Drache Kanones above the forest there, can’t you?”

Lillie looked and sure enough. She also nodded at the mention of Hamburg.

“On your way for an audience with the Messiah I heard was captured about two hours ago? In exchange for data on our Wort Bombe.”

“Affirmative. What about you? Are you headed back to the North Sea once you finish your once-a-month cleaning here?”

Lillie thought for a moment and then nodded.

Jeanne sighed at the slight head movement.

Then she explained the meaning of her sigh.

“Lillie. Maybe I shouldn’t be the one to tell you this, but you should really try to forget.”

“Could you say that if you had lost your husband?”

“Yes, I could.” Jeanne did not hesitate. “I can’t live alone, so if I lost him, I would have no choice but to find a replacement.”

“I can hear you with my new hearing devices, you know?” rumbled a mechanical voice from beyond the forest. That was Jeanne’s husband Karl.

Jeanne shrugged and stuck out her tongue a little before turning toward the forest.

“I’ll never even look at another man as long as you’re still alive.”

“I appreciate it.”

Lillie shut her eyes and placed a hand on her chin.

“I envy you, Jeanne,” she said. “But I didn’t even try to keep him – keep them – alive. I even helped them die, really. Because I knew they would die and did nothing to stop it.”

“You make it sound like his and Lady Rose’s deaths were predetermined.”

“What if they were?” asked Lillie, opening her eyes.

There was no doubt in the eyes she directed straight toward Jeanne.

“I’m sorry, Jeanne, but there is one thing I can’t tell you because of a promise I made with them. You know my Mondnacht here was made from my tears, right? When I created it, I lost the ability to ever again cry like my little sister, but…”

She took a breath.

“I made the decision because of a promise I made with them. I didn’t want to ever worry them by letting them see me cry.”

“…”

“If I keep that promise, I can’t do what you suggested. So even if this is no more than self-condemnation and even if it’s my punishment for hesitating…”

She lowered her head. She could not cry. The ability did not exist inside her.

Jeanne asked a question instead.

“Do you need something before you can let yourself give up? Have you still not found whatever it is? Even after having your dragons search the wreckage for so long?”

“I think Rose’s red gem must be somewhere. I found Silber Löwe, but nothing could be recreated from its Studio. …It was modified to work as Heiliger’s personal Panzer, wasn’t it? That wreckage really was all that remained. Only the wreckage of what had once been a dragon.”

Jeanne started to say something in response. She raised her right hand as if to pat Lillie on the shoulder despite being too far away and she opened her mouth.

“––––––”

She pressed her lips together and then bit the lower one.

She shook her head while Lillie’s downcast eyes couldn’t see. Her short hair swayed.

Then she faced forward and cleared her throat quietly. She spread her legs a bit and crossed her arms before speaking.

“Listen to us wasting the day away discussing our personal affairs. We really are getting old.”

Hearing that, Lillie raised her head and lowered her eyebrows a bit.

“Is that what it means?”

“What kind of reaction is that? You’re supposed to agree and laugh about it.”

“I’m sorry. It didn’t sound like that kind of thing.”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s the spirit that counts.”

Jeanne raised her right hand to face height and pointed at Lillie.

“I’ll tell everyone you left for the North Sea.”

“Thanks.”

“Don’t thank me. Protecting you has been my job since our school days. Well, that and to drag you out from behind your guardian Graham.”

“And my job was to clean up after your almost daily battles over ‘honor’ and to smooth things over with the teachers.”

“She still does that, by the way,” said the distant mechanical voice.

“Eavesdropping is the mark of a cowardly man,” replied Jeanne with a smile. Then she looked to Lillie again. “Did you visit the Village of Pardons? Then why not pay it a visit soon? Your sister visited the village a lot with Borderson’s Melda. The place is beautiful this time of year thanks to all the wheat fields around.”

“That might not last long. I hear the military is really cracking down on Heidengeists now. As an outlet for all the country’s anxieties,” said Lillie. “But maybe that’s a reason to go now. Before it’s lost.”

Jeanne nodded and turned around. She took a few steps before looking back over her shoulder.

Lillie was still standing there, so she spoke to her.

“Are you sure you don’t want to meet the Messiah?”

“I feel like I would say something nasty if I did.”

“Hm? Why’s that?”

The answer was so quiet it was nearly drowned out by the nearby river.

Lillie wrapped her arm around her harp like she was embracing it.

“If what we have now is the result of the Unreif Germane and the prophesies, then the ancient Messiah and the current one are two people I can never, ever-”

“Don’t say it.”

Cut off by Jeanne’s words, Lillie turned around.

Jeanne said nothing to the woman’s back. She only nodded and faced the forest again.

Jeanne kept a blank expression as she walked back into the bushes and the forest beyond.