Editing City Series:Volume6e Chapter2 (section)

===Part 7===

Ether scattered with a sound like a waterfall exploding, but it vanished after only three seconds.

Hazel was still looking up into the briefly mist-covered sky.

…''I’m alive?

She could see. That meant she was still alive.

Rainclouds covered the night sky, so she could no longer see the moon.

The rainclouds were entirely black now, telling her night had truly fallen now.

She looked down to see a dark mist floating and producing waves.

A drop of water landed on her nose.

It was raining.

The sound of the rain drew her gaze toward the ground where she saw someone sitting on the ground with shoulders drooping.

It was Lillie. She hung her head and remained entirely motionless.

Only Hazel slowly took a breath.

Her shoulders rose and fell as she filled her lungs with air and then she turned around.

A large black shape stood there. Its hips were lowered and its right foot swept backwards in a fighting stance.

Its outthrust arms held a long hilt modeled after hair.

“Gelegenheit and…Neue Schwarz.”

The rain fell on the armor, adding a sheen to its matte black color.

Hazel breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the Heavy Barrel’s rain-wet skin.

She could tell her eyebrows were drooping.

She tried to take a step forward, but then she heard a voice from behind. It was weak and joined by the rustling of cloth as someone stood up.

“Messiah. This isn’t over yet.”

She heard a quiet metallic sound from behind her. Realizing what it was, she asked a question.

“Is a Neue Kavalier and one of the Fünf Leithammel really willing to shoot someone in the back, even if it is for revenge?”

“Are you saying you have no reason to keep fighting? I burned down the Borderson village.”

She said nothing more because a somewhat raised male voice interrupted.

“Enough. You were never cut out to be a villain, Lillie Telmetz.”

Hazel looked up at the voice.

A dark figure hopped down from Neue Schwartz’s back.

The man was wrapped in a black coat with his eyes half hidden by sunglasses.

Hazel wasn’t even surprised to see him. She only shut her eyes with a sigh of relief.

Lillie’s voice reached her from behind.

“Stay back! I’ll shoot!”

“Will you? We both know you’re more interested in complaining than shooting, Lillie Telmetz.”

Berger spat the words out in disinterest and Lillie gasped.

Hazel tried to get a look at the woman behind her, but Berger arrived in front of her before she could move.

She looked up at him.

The black coloration in front of her suddenly approached further and hugged her.

Her rain-soaked body received the warmth of his dry coat and his body heat.

His biological right arm and mechanical left arm briefly but firmly squeezed at her back.

“Oh.”

She sank into his chest. That chest shook and she heard his voice from overhead.

“You got ahead of yourself there, silly Hazel. You too, Lillie Telmetz.”

The comment to Lillie made Hazel look up in confusion.

“The Borderson village isn’t dead. How do you think I knew to come here, Hazel?”

“Well…”

Now that he mentioned it, she realized she was in the middle of the woods with nothing but the mountain road around.

“When I arrived in Borderson after you, I found the village burned to the ground. But the mayor was still there and he told me everything.” He took a breath. “Lillie Telmetz, you told the mayor you would be burning the Village of Pardons for the sake of your reputation, but you let all the residents escape and told him to return and rebuild if that was what they wanted.”

“Lies!” shouted Lillie.

Berger’s right arm immediately moved.

Hazel realized he had reached into his black coat.

And when he pulled his hand back out…

“The mayor gave me this wine. He gave it to me along with a certain question, but is it not enough proof for you?”

“What question?” asked Lillie, her voice barely a whisper. “One-armed young man, what did the mayor say to you?”

“I hadn’t seen him in a few years, but out of nowhere, he asked me if I had ever made a promise with a certain Ilfheim woman. When I said yes, he gave me this. To be honest, I don’t really know what it all means.”

Bright lights split the mist behind Berger.

They were the headlights of the armored truck waiting back there.

They were blocked by Neue Schwarz and Berger, but they still illuminated Lillie.

Hazel saw Lillie turn toward the lights, her head lowered in the rain.

She still held the gun but did nothing at all with it.

After a few breaths, she lowered the gun.

Hazel breathed a sigh of relief.

…''I don’t sense any killer intent.

Then she realized Lillie’s mostly closed eyes were directed toward her.

“Um…do you need something?”

“Yes. I apologize, but, uh.”

Lillie held a hand to her mouth in hesitation but finally…

“If you don’t mind, could I see that pendant?”

Hazel stepped away from Berger.

After confirming he had taken a step back in response, she grabbed the chain around her neck.

She slowly lifted the red gem locket.

Lillie took a step closer and crouched.

She viewed the red gem for a few seconds before her shoulders slumped and she let out a long sigh.

“So I was wasn’t mistaken.”

She nodded and looked back over her shoulder.

She looked to the Requiem that was now hidden by the mist.

Hazel didn’t understand what any of this meant. But…

…''This must have been important to her.

So she held the pendant out toward Lillie and waited without speaking a word.

Lillie groaned just once and then slowly looked up into the sky.

Her exposed white throat trembled and then she sobbed once.

No actual words left her lips along with her breaths, but they did mouth two names.

“You two were already in the Messiah’s care?”

Hazel watched as Lillie directed her words and her face toward the sky.

The rain fell to the corners of her eyes, wet her cheeks, and dripped down to her chin.

After a few breaths of silence, she lowered her head.

She quietly cleared her throat, straightened her back, and viewed the pendant again.

“I should have been the one to present this to you.”

She smiled with a note of resignation in her voice.

Hazel saw the tone color of her Lives in that smile.

The bluish-white color and weak tempo was not quite that of happiness.

But her smile remained, so Hazel didn’t comment.

Hazel felt a small push on her back and Berger’s voice whispered in her ear.

“Hey, what’s this about? Isn’t that mine?”

“Sorry. When I was shot yesterday, it took the bullet for me and broke.”

“When you were ''what''?”

She shrugged and didn’t explain further. Lillie laughed quietly.

“Something similar would have happened regardless. You heard everything from our commander, didn’t you? When you travel to the past, you are supposed to give that pendant to a girl. And then…”

“Hold on. I bought this pendant at a festival shop,” said Berger.

“I don’t know if that really is the same pendant passed down through the ages, but that isn’t what matters.”

Hazel gripped the pendant and nodded at Lillie’s statement.

…''Yes, I understand.

Lillie smiled and nodded back.

Then she glanced toward the lights shining on her.

“This is as far as I can go, Messiah. However…”

Hazel tilted her head and Lillie narrowed her eyes and continued.

“But if you wish for an undivided destiny and attempt to reach it, I promise you the moon shall assist you. And for that…” Lillie placed a hand on her chest. “You must seek out your own Text.”

That was the end of it. Lillie glanced over at Berger, bowed, and walked away. She walked toward the obscuring mist to reach the light that had been shining on her for a while now.

Left behind, Hazel leaned into Berger’s chest.

Then she saw the lights move. They illuminated the mist as they turned around.

The armored truck was leaving. The moving light vanished and the rumble of an engine reached them.

Only the damp air and dark night remained.