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Chapter Text

In the witching hour, when all creatures slept, magical energy rose to its strongest pulse, thrumming through the leaf-carpeted ground and the reaching trees like the heartbeat of the forest. The large full moon shone in the sky, illuminating the path for a group of hooded figures as they made their way past the shady glades and moss-veiled trails, accompanied by the sounds of rustling foliage, the chirping of crickets, and the crunching twigs beneath their feet. They could feel the beat of that overflowing energy with every step they made, coursing through their veins, gentle like air, but blazing like fire. Sparkles of magic filled the air, floating from the warm earth toward the sky over the trees covered in ivy. One of those hooded figures looked smaller than the others, and when her gaze followed the fragments of magic, the ore gold moon was reflected in that pair of wandering crimson eyes. Then she felt a tug from her right, a shorter girl with long white hair that showed beneath her hood, urging her to stop getting distracted.

They were rushing, and for a good cause.

The forest was no longer a safe place for them.

A scout could be lurking behind every foliage, eager to present their heads to Archduke Rudolf of Eylstadt on a silver platter.

They never knew if this would be the last Coven they had.

However, when the full moon appeared on the sky, the ley lines would call them. And they would follow those sacred magical petals deep into the heart of the woods, almost as natural as breathing. The elated feeling, the way they were whisked away to the hallowed grounds, were more than enough to take them to their feet.

Once they reached their destination, a small clearing in the forest directly underneath the moon, they stood in a perfect circle, all thirteen of them, wearing white hoods that were interwoven with swirling patterns of red and gold threads.

The eldest of them, the leader of the clan, took a step forward and announced with a booming voice, "We are finally here for our seventy-seventh White Witch Coven..."

She paused, and when she spoke again her voice sounded more grim than before, "...Never before has a White Witch Coven been held in such trying times. We have survived, countless times, from those madmen who constantly desire to purge us. But the danger is not over, and our long journey is far from finished. I have received a word...that Archduke Rudolf, with that accursed stone of his, has eliminated most of the witch clans in the East... We might be one of the last clan of witches in Eylstadt."

Two of the figures in the circle winced slightly, but they continued to listen.

"As of now, there is absolutely no known way to fight that stone. There were not many of us left to begin with, and witches all over the nation are either fleeing, or being murdered in such brutality the likes of which we have never seen before. Archduke Rudolf is also going to hold an international conference to discuss the fate of witches in Europe. He would declare an all-out war against witches, launching the inquisition internationally. Under the jackboot of his regime, this situation has truly become dire for us all. We are walking down the certain path to extinction..."

She shuffled uncomfortably, as though trying to comfort herself. "It is like a sign that witches should not exist in modern times..."

There was a long silence, and for a while the only sounds they heard were of the crickets and the screeching jays, as if they were singing for their inevitable funeral.

Then another figure took a step forward, hesitantly opening her hood to reveal a young witch with pearly white hair and piercing blood-red eyes.

She took a deep breath, looking a bit nervous to speak in front of them all.

"There is hope..." she began, "If that stone of the damned is the one causing this whole mess, all we need to do is retrieve it."

The other figures in the circle moved and whispered among themselves.

"And how..." the leader spoke again, "...do you propose we do that...?"

"By inflitrating the palace," she responded, "We just have to send someone there. Once that stone is ours, then the von Eylstadt family would never make a fool out of us anymore. We would emerge victorious."

The leader seemed skeptical to her idea, but some of the figures around her nodded in approval.

"And who would be doing this noble and, frankly, suicidal, deed for us...?"

"Please allow my friend who came up with this idea to explain it herself..."

The figure beside her winced, but she nervously opened her hood and showed the unruly scarlet hair underneath, a truly striking color that jarred with the rest of her outfit. The white-haired witch nudged her to go forward, and the whispers among the witches died down immediately.

The redhead swallowed and cleared her throat.

"I..." she started, "I know I'm not a member of this clan...and I'm not supposed to speak in your Coven...but..."

Her expression hardened under the gentle glow of the moonlight.

"Please listen to what I have to say..."

"Run, Izetta...! Fly away to the white witches! Now...! !"

Those were the last words the young witch heard in her grandmother's voice.

Shrill.

Hair-raising.

Fearful.

They still haunted her to this day.

Her own loud footsteps as she made a beeline to the back door, nearly dropping her broom in her hurry.

Tears streaming down her face as her grandmother's screams and gunfire echoed in her ears.

The gale violently blowing her short messy hair when she flew faster than she had ever been in her life to her best friend's doostep in the middle of the deep woods.

She remembered how she stumbled on the ground, covered in cuts and bruises, weeping and crying and grabbing her wrist as painful wisps of red-hot magic threatened to overflow from her palm and eyes.

And how she was only able to croak out three words to the white witches before collapsing into uncontrollable sobs from the pain that jarred every bone in her body.

"They took her."

For Izetta, that long night felt like the end of the world.

For the rest of the witches, that night was the beginning of everything.

Despite the advancement of modern technology, witches continued to co-exist with humans in certain parts of the land. For centuries, witches enforced a strict law of isolationism, a rule to never interact with humans unless it was absolutely necessary or life-threatening. Because of this, even though humans were aware of the existence of witches, they never interacted much with each other. Conflicts and hate crimes occurred sporadically throughout the nation, especially when humans found out about a location with no ley lines, but violence to witches were few and far in between.

At least until the new Archduke of Eylstadt, Rudolf III, came into power.

His heartfelt speech about true religious values and condemnation of heretics resonated in the hearts of Elystadtians everywhere.

"This world needs to be thoroughly cleansed."

At that moment, not many people realized the trouble brewing behind that fatherly smile.

Izetta's grandmother was one of the few who did.

Izetta remembered having a rather cryptic conversation with her after the Archduke's coronation.

"If a war between witches and humans finally begins in Eylstadt, Izetta, who do you think would win...?"

Izetta cocked her head to the side."The witches...?"

"If it were any other nation, we would."

Izetta didn't understand what her grandmother meant, at first.

However, in a very short time, the Archduke made sure his true self was clearly known to the world.

He was piousness itself.

"Practitioners of malevolent sorcery and worshippers of the devil are the filth that stain this holy Mother Earth," he would say to the public, "That is why the Gods granted me this sacred stone, which has been locked tight as my family heirloom for generations. Now it was freed from its slumber, all because it is our moral duty to weed the heretics, dispose of those rotten roots, and nurture our Mother Earth with only the seeds of those who could rightfully live on this land of the blessed."

Not long after his coronation, the first wave of trials began. The Archduke personally led the soldiers and inquisitors to ambush the homes of the oldest, most famous and influential witches, to be tried and executed. They were granted full investigative powers to terrorize the witches.

That mysterious, glowing violet stone accompanied him in a box wherever they went, and he could command it to temporarily drain the area of precious magical energy.

It was a horrendous, gruesome nightmare.

The capital punishment of the Archduke's choosing were brutal, after long torturous sessions, many of the witches were burned at the stake, boiled alive, flayed, disemboweled, crucified, decapitated, or shot to death.

The Archduke claimed that his more ferocious methods were so that he could "cleanse the very earth that those witches walked on".

He proceeded to wipe out each and every settlement of witches that he could get his hands on, and the witches had no choice but to flee.

Ever since her grandmother died, there was never a night that Izetta spent in a peaceful slumber.

If not because of the nightmares, it was because Sophie woke her up in a panicked tone because the white witches had sensed that there were human scouts in that area, searching for their clan to be surrendered to the Archduke.

And they would escape again, night after night, by foot because they would be quickly found out if they flew.

It wasn't long until Izetta grew sick and jaded of it all. She felt it the most when she was missing her grandmother so much that it nearly brought her into tears. She didn't know what became of her...but it was certain that she was tortured to death like the rest of the others.

"...why can't we fight back, Sophie...?"

Her white-haired friend glanced at her and she could see her brows furrowing under the faint light of the campfire. Jack Frost was particularly merciless during this time of the year, it was a really cold night and they were sitting outside the camp, huddled in their heavy mantles, keeping watch for any signs of scouts, with only the campfire and the quiet winds to keep them company. The Archduke's reign of terror caused them to revert to their nomadic lifestyle in the past, and they now lived in simple, camouflaged tents to avoid capture. The little pitiful fire seemed to reflect Izetta's mood.

"Have you forgotten about that goddamn stone?" Sophie huffed, her breath turning to white fume in front of her.

"There's...there's got to be something we can do! We can't keep running like this!" Izetta cried.

"Are you crazy or what?" she snapped, "Your grandma was the strongest witch that I've ever known and even she didn't stand a chance against that piece of jewellery!" When Izetta didn't directly reply, she slightly lowered her head and muttered, "...Sorry."

"Then we just have to steal it."

Sophie opened her mouth in her surprise, before closing it again. "You're right, let's just walk into that jerk's bedroom and take it! Honestly? You need to get your head checked."

"I'm serious!"

Sophie's eyes widened at her raised voice.

"...We...we just have to find a chance to get inside."

"You mean like a...sneak attack or something?"

"I don't know...I..." The reflection of the campfire danced in Izetta's crimson eyes, "I will find a way."

"Why can't you just stick to our original plan? We'll get out of this country, live in Westria, and go into hiding."

"Grandma ever said that...not even Westria would be safe for us..."

Sophie stared blankly at her for a few seconds, then gave her a shrug and scoffed, "Well...I hope you're not just all talk."

She wouldn't be.

Her grandmother died to buy her some time to flee.

She would never let that sacrifice go to waste.

A witch was actually indistinguishable from humans.

As long as they dressed like them and never used known or suspected witch jargons in front of them, they could hide themselves pretty easily among humans.

They might have rather unusual hair and eye colors, but those weren't enough proof to accuse them as witches.

The strongest proof usually came from testimonies by a lot of unrelated people, or that they were famous enough to be noticed by humans in neighboring villages.

That was why the oldest witches and the most well-known clans got lynched first.

Izetta realized that sooner or later, there would be no old witches in the whole nation, and clans consisting of relatively young witches, like the white witches, would be the only ones left.

It was frightening, but Izetta could walk freely in the town markets without being recognized as a witch, as long as she kept low and didn't attract anyone's attention. Her hood was useful for this.

She always offered to go to the market whenever Sophie's family needed something they could not obtain by themselves, or there was something they needed to trade for human money.

Today was no different.

She put on her hood and headed to the nearby village, almost too merrily, although she knew there were people that were after her head.

The market was buzzing with people, and Izetta's small figure quickly blended with the visitors. It was a little peculiar for a witch like her, but she loved the crowds. She liked watching people greeting each other, chatting casually about their day, the smell of fresh groceries, the sound of footsteps that surrounded her. The sellers kept offering her their produce when she walked past, and she politely refused. Sometimes it amazed her how normal these people's lives here, as if it never came to them that witches all over the country were being murdered.

It was unfair.

It was unfair that these people's families were alive and well, and Izetta couldn't even see her grandmother's dead body in one piece.

All because this Archduke suddenly decided that they deserved to be purged.

Izetta clenched her hands, trying to maintain her smile as she moved from vendor to vendor to look for the fresh vegetables that Sophie wanted.

When she finally found them and requested them to the vendor, simple introductions were made and the conversation began to flow. The middle-aged lady commented, "My, young girl, I never see you around here...!"

Izetta nervously pulled her hood further over her head and said, "I'm...uh...not from around here."

"That's okay, we have new people around here all the time. Where do you live...?"

"In...the outskirts...near the forest..." She instinctively looked around her, her heart beating faster than before.

There were only shoppers there, and aside from the lady, no one seemed to take notice of her.

"Oh! Isn't that where witches used to live?" the woman exclaimed, putting Izetta's order into plastic bags, "Please be careful. They're dangerous, aren't they?"

"Dangerous...?" Izetta said, her hood slowly slipping back again, "Wha...they're not dangerous."

"I heard they eat human flesh, especially children, and they are accomplices of the devil who bring sorrow and disaster to Eylstadt. And they can hex you! I get the creeps just thinking about it."

"Um..." Izetta felt her mouth suddenly became dry, "They don't-"

"I'm so glad that we have a ruler who finally does something about it. We have let those witches off the hook for far too long. In this age of science, witches are just pests who refuse to conform to society. They are unnatural beings that the Gods have ordered us to purge. Don't you think so...?"

Izetta bit her lip, her head swirling as she handed the money to her with a shaky hand.

We can never...

Live together with humans...

How dare they...

How dare they justify their hatred with such lies…

These people living in ivory towers…

We never...ever hurt anybody.

We're just...

Just here, living in this world...

"Even their existence is a sin!" she went on, "But it's okay, because it seems like the Archduke is doing a very good job in taking care of them. He is so busy recently that the princess has to look for her royal guards herself!"

That caught Izetta's attention, distracting her from the nauseating topic about witches.

"The princess...?"

"Yes, our dearest Princess Ortfiné! Oh, how I love that girl. I just read the poster on the notice board over there. They said she is holding an open recruitment in Landsbruck for anyone over 18 who is interested to become one of her royal guards."

It struck Izetta at that instant.

That's it.

If she became one of the staff of the palace, she could go in and out of it as much as she pleased.

She could spy on the Archduke and the princess, and maybe find a way to steal the accursed stone.

If she could hit the jackpot somehow, that stone was as good as in Izetta's hands.

She could discover its secret, and how the von Eylstadts possessed it, and hell...maybe she could even kill the Archduke and the princess...although she probably didn't have the courage to do it.

Yet.

If they can justify the mass murder of my people...

Then I can justify anything.

Including taking advantage of some gullible, spoiled princess.

A golden chance like this would never come twice.

Anger coursing wildly in her veins, she made a mental note to memorize the poster.

And on that exact place she decided, that she could only do this alone.

"Are...you...insane?"

When Izetta returned to the camp of the white witches afterward and Sophie asked her if she already had any plans later on, Izetta couldn't bring it in her to lie.

She honestly told her everything, and Sophie's face contorted into a mixture of rage and disbelief.

Izetta didn't blame her. She was ready to do anything, something, to set them free from this hopeless situation...no matter how outrageous that sounded.

"I have decided, Sophie, this is something I have to do alone."

"And? You're just going to put yourself in enemy territory alone? Have you lost your mind?"

"This is my problem, not yours."

She walked past Sophie impatiently, knowing full well that she was jarring on Sophie's nerves.

She loved Sophie, she really did.

But she would not get her involved in this.

"...don't tell me you're making this your personal vendetta, Izetta."

Sophie's quiet tone made her stop, eyes staring emptily into the darkness of the camp.

Then before Izetta could answer, the white-clad witch furiously stomped her feet on the floor and cursed really loudly, surprising her redheaded friend.

"Argh, fine! ! I'm coming with you!"

"What? No!" Izetta forbid.

She fiercely jabbed Izetta in the ribs with her finger. "Shut up! This is all because of you! I can't just sit here and let you kill yourself! At least I have to be there to kill you myself when you try!"

Izetta couldn't believe it. "This is none of your business, Sophie!"

"It's final. I'm coming with you, no matter you want it or not. Get used to it," she fumed before storming away while purposefully hitting her shoulder against Izetta's, "The White Witch Coven would be held tomorrow under the full moon. You'd better tell that to everyone."

"I..." Izetta said, "I have to tell the Coven about this...?"

Sophie glared dangerously at her and she gulped.

"...fine. But I'm not backing out whether they allow me to do it or not."

"Izetta, how many years do you think we've known each other? If you obey even a word that comes out from their annoying mouths, I'll eat my broom."

Izetta saw how the corner of Sophie's mouth curled up into a tiny smile.

"That's the only good thing about you anyway."

As she finished explaining her plan to the white witches, she shakily waited for their response.

It was neither a perfect nor intricate plan, but this was the best that she could come up with. If she didn't receive the support of the white witches, then she would do this alone.

The first person to react in the circle was Sophie's sister.

"Sophie-"

"Stop it, Sis. I've already decided to involve myself," she calmly interrupted, "She is doing this for the sake of all the witches in the world. I can't just let her do it alone."

The woman grew silent, and Izetta felt a sting in her heart.

Everyone in that circle knew what grisly fate awaited them if they failed. There was zero possibility that they would come back in one piece.

A witch beside Sophie's sister spoke this time, in a quite intimidating manner, "We admire your selflessness...but there are many things yet to be considered. Landsbruck is supposed to be a safe haven for witches because of the closely compacted ley lines in that area. However, in our current situation that place is a two-headed dagger. There were young witches who got killed on sight there because they had trouble controlling themselves in a place with such dense magical energy. Both of you are young, inexperienced witches. Izetta can't even control her magic perfectly. It would be difficult for you to stay hidden. We would not send two witches to their deaths for a lost cause."

"And can we really trust you to do this...?" the leader added, "The fact that the two of you are young and inexperienced is the truth, and we have a responsibility to protect the last of our kind. Especially you, Izetta, you are the last surviving member of your clan. You're the one who understands the most that you have the responsibility to live. And forgive us for thinking that sending you would...cause some secrets to be spilled and the situation would become even worse than it already has."

"I know it is hard to believe in us," Izetta replied, "But I would like you to know that, if they manage to capture me, they can skin me alive, break every bone in my body and slice my throat open all at once and they'll still have a hard time making me disclose any of our jealously guarded secrets. Of course I guarantee that I would protect Sophie with all my power."

There was a tiny gasp from the witches beside Izetta, but she ignored them.

"They are responsible for my grandmother's agony, and I would personally make each of them pay a thousand fold."

At that moment she knew...that the mad glint in her flaming red eyes and the burning poison in her words had sealed the deal for the white witches.

She didn't notice Sophie's sad stare on her back, not even when the white witches gave them their blessings as they mounted their horses.

"If you go to Landsbruck on horseback in full speed, you would arrive there in two days time..."

"We can't really provide perfect forgeries for your documents...you still have to use your real names and age..."

"But they are enough to hide your true identities in case they decide to investigate..."

"Besides, you are already prepared to greet the jaws of death..."

"We still feel that you should reconsider..."

"But we know you probably won't give it a second thought..."

"So we can only give you our blessings...and we will pray to the Moon every single night so that you can return here..."

"Alive."

Chapter Text

The Principality of Eylstadt always prided itself as an Alpine country.

It was blessed with phantom-white mountains that brooded over the lands and abundant unblemished greenery that would awe anyone who set eyes on them. Even when Izetta and Sophie were racing with time, they couldn't help but pull the reigns when they were galloping past the majestic landscapes, the coiling vigorous rivers, the seemingly limitless grasslands, the thick forests that carpeted the hills, and mountains with cloudy mist and rings of snow covering their jagged peaks that soared into the skies.

When Izetta marveled at those incredible sceneries, she felt saddened when she remembered how there were people who thought that witches didn't deserve to have all this beauty.

They didn't understand the deep, intimate connection that witches had with the wonders of nature and their ley lines.

Sometimes she found herself getting lost in its splendor, especially when they came across the stunning vastness of bluish-purple lavender fields.

It was the first time Izetta had to stop immediately, merely to admire how the color shone under the sunset, how the pleasant smell filled her senses, how the sea of flowers spread to infinity across the horizon.

It is hard to believe that such a beautiful color exists... Izetta thought, and she was grateful that she got to witness it in a wonder created by nature. Lavenders had always held a soft spot in her heart ever since her parents died.

Sophie had to call out to her to continue their journey, and with a heavy heart, she departed from the flower fields.

They never stayed in one place for too long, nor did they venture too much into human villages.

One time that they did, however, Izetta found some brochures about the royal guard recruitment again, and this time she decided to read it carefully with Sophie when they stopped to rest again in the middle of a plain field.

"So...we knew there's going to be some assessments. Of course they won't let anyone become the Princess's royal guards. Let's see here...so they're going to 'test our knowledge or proficiency in a particular subject or skill related to becoming a royal guard, the main ones being combat abilities and the usage of weapons and firearms'...darn it, they want us to use guns? I never even touched one in my life," Sophie grumbled as Izetta was preparing to cook some water.

"Well, maybe it's time to appreciate human technology. When we cannot use magic, these weapons might prove to be useful, even if just for cover."

"Ew, using those gross barbaric weapons that those humans whip around like a toy?" Sophie said with a scowl, "Thanks, but no thanks."

"Sophie...I don't think we have the luxury of choice here," Izetta reminded.

It wasn't a thing that was mentioned often, but Izetta heard that some clans of witches, like the white witches, didn't think too highly of the modern weapons that humans invented. They were considered taboo in many witch cultures. She felt bad because she had involved Sophie in so much trouble, and she didn't really want to add to that by making her do something that went against her belief.

"Sophie...I'm sor-"

"Don't start. I can itemize every bad thing you have caused including that horrendously stale bread yesterday, those disgusting snakes in our tent, your stupidity for going on this suicide mission, and my stupidity for letting myself being jacked around in it. And your lame 'sorry' won't make me feel any better. Actually it only makes it worse. So be quiet."

"Aren't you angry at me?"

"No, Izetta, I'm only doing my job, which is to keep you company when you're getting yourself killed," Sophie flipped the brochure and said in a bored tone, "Speaking of which...they include the picture of the brat we're protecting... She needs no introduction, alright. Even witches can recognize that face anywhere."

A black and white picture was printed on the back of the brochure. Izetta threw a glance at it and caught a glimpse of a strikingly beautiful woman with long hair that was tied into a bun on the back of her head.

Sophie saw how Izetta's gaze lingered a second too long on the photo and commented again, "Quite a looker, isn't she? Can't believe she is the daughter of that monster."

"Who knows, maybe she's as rotten as he is inside," Izetta scoffed, directing her attention back to her kettle, "She's been living in splendid isolation anyway. Looks aren't everything."

Sophie only sneered at her. "What a reaction. You sure you intend to become one of her royal guards...?"

"You don't need to worry about that. I will get the job, she will believe in me, and I will get information from her. Plain and simple."

"How cold. Are you going to kill her too?"

Two pairs of red eyes clashed and Izetta only gave her a disinterested stare.

"We'll see about that."

The city of Landsbruck was the capital of Eylstadt that was surrounded by high mountains, and the massive chain of the Northern snowcapped peaks and the large Lan River that divided the town were unmistakable, spectacular sceneries that provided gorgeous backdrops to the citizens' daily life. The two parts of the city were joined together by magnificent bridges that were built over the river. Splendid old buildings and churches lined the streets and the houses were bedecked with overflowing flower boxes. When Izetta took just one step into the city, the abundant magical energy from the ley lines immediately usurped into her body. They weren't lying about that, the energy here was outlandishly huge. Sophie probably sensed it herself, although she didn't show it on her face.

Another thing that Izetta found surprising was that wherever she walked to on the streets, hunching with heavy backpacks, people would warmly greet them. The main street was littered with souvenir shops and little stalls which emitted inviting smells of food that lit up their appetite. The people also seemed to be very welcoming of foreigners, giving the sense to Izetta that Landsbruck thrived on tourism.

"I'm getting seriously creeped out," Sophie said in a hushed whisper as she kept tugging on Izetta's tunic, "Why are they all saying hi to us?"

"I guess that is the way it is around here."

"If they are so kind to strangers why are they trying to kill us? Because we don't give them money?"

Izetta glared at her. "If you think that's true, try handing one of them money while saying 'Hi, there, I'm Sophie the witch, what's your name?' I'm sure they will accept you just as warmly."

"I'm just joking, you know, quit it with that sarcastic jabbering."

They kept walking until they arrived at their destination, the Royal Palace, the biggest building Izetta had ever seen, with its impressive gardens and golden front gates, huge living complexes that seemed to draw inspiration from the shape of a cathedral, and copper domes that were painted a clear turquoise color.

Izetta and Sophie gazed at it in awe for a few moments.

"If we get accepted...we're going to live here? Seriously...?" Sophie asked.

"I guess...?"

"I'm freaking excited, woman, let's do this," she said, her ponytail and earrings bouncing in her enthusiasm.

"Hey...! You two over there...!"

A loud, sharp voice froze them on the spot.

When they looked through the gates to its source, they saw a tall young woman who was wearing a navy blue dress uniform with epaulettes and a pair of white trousers walking to them with a serious expression.

"Who might you be and what business do you have here?" she asked, eyes filled with suspicion.

Izetta almost reflexively pulled her hood over her head when Sophie grabbed her wrist and shook her head.

"Um...we..." Sophie said, trying to sound a little more courteous, "We are here for the royal guard recruitment..."

The woman stared at them from head to toe. She clicked her tongue in disapproval before saying, "...seriously?"

Sophie was immediately enraged by the implication. "What did you just say, you tall-ass bit-"

Izetta hurriedly closed Sophie's mouth with her hands and said, "Sorry! But we are really here to apply. We might not look like it, but we can be great royal guards, honest. This friend of mine got herself invited along..."

"Hmph..." the woman snorted with a shrug, "...fine then. You arrived here a bit late, but we still need more people, so show me what you can do."

"Show you...?"

The dark-haired woman faced them with squared shoulders and said, "My name is Bianca, and I am the Commander of Princess Finé's royal guards."

They stared at her dumfounded for a few seconds before Bianca casually opened the gates for them.

"Princess Finé's not hard to please, so I am the one who has to sort out the potential guards."

"Does...that mean she'll accept us?" Izetta asked.

Bianca leaned forward to stare at her face, and she was so close all of a sudden that Izetta almost backed away in surprise.

"Yeah..." Bianca concluded after a few seconds, "She'll like you."

"Wha..."

"Anyway, it won't change anything if you don't have at least basic skills in combat. We are not really looking for the best martial artists the nation could offer, just someone whom we deem as trustworthy enough to hang around the Princess. She's not exactly helpless by herself. The last person who tried to kidnap her was rushed to a hospital with at least two broken fingers."

"A natural badass. I like it," Sophie commented.

When Bianca gave them a blank look, Izetta elbowed Sophie in the back and she yelled out, "Ow!"

The Commander sighed and muttered, "Follow me."

Aside from a garden, the palace had a large multipurpose open yard right behind it. From the looks of it, it seemed to be used for a lot of military training. There was a small building to store weapons and targets for shooting practice lining the yard. There were three women there, and they were all wearing identical uniforms to Bianca, but with a white color motif.

The short-haired brunette greeted Bianca when she arrived. "Yo, Bianca, there's more of them?"

"We can still use two more applicants."

"That's great, we can watch," she replied playfully.

Bianca then made Izetta and Sophie stand nervously for at least half an hour as she checked and rechecked their documents.

They finally could breathe properly again when Bianca decided that the forgeries looked legit and asked, "So, your names are...Izetta and Sophie?"

They nodded to her and she said, "What kinds of weapons can you use?"

Izetta and Sophie glanced at each other in confusion.

Bianca wouldn't seem to like it if they gave her a half-hearted answer.

"Give us anything and we'll do it!" Sophie declared. Beside her, Izetta's face became pale.

Bianca's eyebrows were raised.

"...this is not a joke."

"Just throw us anything and judge for yourself," she said confidently, ignoring Izetta's protesting tugs on her clothes.

Bianca didn't look impressed. "Fine then, Sophie, a handgun for you. And Izetta," she looked at the other royal guards, "A swordfight with Anna."

The blonde with long bangs winked at Izetta, and she felt a twitch in her gut.

A swordfight…? Witches were not known for their athletic abilities. Sophie sneered at her, and Izetta pretended not to notice.

A few minutes later, they decided that Sophie would go first and prepared the shooting targets.

After Izetta and Sophie changed into slightly oversized light blue Eylstadt military uniforms, Sophie was handed an ear muffler and an M1935 pistol, which she examined in disgust.

"Something the matter?" Bianca asked.

"Nothing," she said, although her face looked like she just stepped on dog turd, "So what should I do?"

"See those targets over there?"

She pointed toward the human-shaped wooden boards that were scattered around the field. A bulls-eye was painted on the head, left chest, and stomach area of each board.

"Let's see how many you can hit."

Izetta hoped Sophie didn't make it so painfully obvious that she never touched a gun in her life, but when Sophie gripped the gun and lousily peeked inside the barrel with her finger still on the trigger, her hope died out with it.

The other royal guards laughed in a mocking tone and Izetta heard one of them muttered, "She doesn't know jack", causing her to groan inwardly.

Izetta threw Sophie a look that said, "Get going already!"

Sophie only stuck her tongue at her as she quickly readied her stance, aimed at the nearest target, and pulled the trigger. Izetta flinched; she didn't expect the weapon to be as loud as it was.

Her first shot missed the target entirely and landed on the grass on the side.

While her upper body was violently shaken by the recoil, Sophie only looked innocently confused. "Wha...that's weird...thought I aimed it perfectly..."

"Are you dumb? You were focusing on the target instead of the front-sight, no wonder you missed completely," Bianca shouted, loud enough for Sophie to hear through her ear muffs.

"Shut it, I'm just getting started."

However, after several more wild shots, it was apparent that all she could leave were a few scattered holes that didn't even scratch any of the bull's-eyes.

Bianca was getting more and more impatient.

"Are you done?" she snapped, "You're just wasting our bullets, and my time, by this point. What is this, some kind of joke? You can't be possibly thinking of becoming Princess Finé's royal guard with this level. We need people who know their job. You'd better go home now before I make enough jibes to reduce you into a pathetic crying jag."

Izetta could see the tips of Sophie's hair began to shake.

And float.

Intense negative emotions were a witch's greatest enemy.

Just when Izetta was about to call Sophie's name to warn her, the magical energy seeped back into her body, and her strands of hair obeyed the law of gravity once more.

Izetta thought Sophie was going to lash out, but instead, she made really sad, pleading eyes toward Bianca.

"Oh, Royal Guard Commander, please give me one more chance to showcase my skills. I am so sorry for being so rude earlier. Please, I beg of you."

Bianca was clearly taken aback by this, and Izetta understood why.

Sophie had an uncanny ability to convince people that she was earnest and regretful, although she probably had never felt either of those in her life.

Bianca seemed to be deep in thought for a while, then she said with a warning tone, "...alright, I'll give you one last chance. Reload the pistol. You at least know how to do that, right?"

Sophie gave her a delighted thank you and proceeded to do as she ordered...or at least tried to, because she spent some time messing with the magazine release while muttering, "This...freaking...junk... is... jammed."

When she could finally free the magazine, Bianca handed her a fresh loaded one with a slightly amused expression.

"Thanks," Sophie said with a sweet smile, before inserting the magazine into the grip.

That was when Izetta saw it.

A magical hue covering the magazine from the spot that Sophie touched as it slid into the grip, before slowly spreading to the whole gun.

There was a ghost of a smirk on the white witch's face as she faced the target one more time.

The royal guards watched her with glee, obviously expecting to jeer at her when she failed again.

Then their smiles were completely wiped off their faces when Sophie aimed at the farthest target, and fired a shot.

Everything from her posture and grip was wrong.

However, Izetta knew the immense power from the ley lines would guide the magic-infused bullet to Sophie's every whim, and it hit the target squarely in the center of the bull's-eye on its chest with a thunderous bang.

Izetta could see the look of pure shock that instantly struck all of the royal guards.

Grinning from ear to ear, Sophie proceeded to empty her gun to different targets, increasing her speed with every shot and each of her bullets landed exactly in the center of a bull's-eye. Izetta swore she could see some of the bullets zig-zagging in midair. Sophie was having too much fun with it; she even did a little twirl by the end before firing her last round at the head of a wooden target.

By the end of it all, everyone except Izetta was staring at her with their mouths wide open.

"Jeepers..." the guard called Anna said, "What the hell was that just now...?"

Sophie only cackled and asked, "So what do you think?"

It took a second too long for Bianca to hide her dumbstruck expression.

"...Pretty much everything besides your aim is horrible," she commented, "But it's an extraordinarily good aim. So we can find a way to fix you, I guess. As long as you don't play around like before and show us your true abilities from the start."

"So I'm accepted? Yay!"

Sophie was about to give Izetta a high-five when Izetta pulled her aside and said to her in a hushed voice, "What were you thinking? ? Don't overdo it...!"

"Ah, sorry, I got carried away," she admitted, "But you'll need magic more than me. What're you going to do about the swordfight?"

"You know how it is..." Izetta glanced at Anna, who was preparing the swords for her and Izetta, "Once I touch her sword, I win."

It was not exactly difficult to do.

She just needed to approach the outgoing Anna and exchanged a few words with her. The guard seemed to like her enough to let her examine the weapon and explain how they were just practice swords with dulled ends. Izetta politely listened to her, and while Anna was busy speaking, she touched her sword with the tip of her finger, filling it to the brim with magic.

All Izetta needed was a way to control the handicap herself to give her a chance to win...and this was more than enough. She apologized to Anna in her mind, she was going to be humiliated by a newbie who never knew anything much about a swordfight.

But Izetta couldn't afford to lose. She had to become the Princess's guard, even if she had to cheat and risk being found out because of it.

Anna handed her a sword and as soon as the cold metal touched Izetta's hand, the pulse of the mystical energy shone from her fingers through the length of the sword.

She saw Sophie's sneer from the corner of her eye.

Magic could accomplish things that your physical body couldn't. As long as she could make it seem like her hand was the one moving the sword, she could pretend to be a skillful swordswoman.

"Are you ready...?"

Anna was standing with her legs open wide, holding her sword with one hand.

She obviously intended to take it easy on her.

You won't win from me like that, woman, she thought, facing her with a firm grip on her weapon, Your sword is on my side...

When Bianca was about to put the whistle on her mouth to signal the start of the fight, a sudden, powerful voice interrupted her.

"Hold it...!"

The royal guards recognized who it was and all of them immediately raised their arms in a salute.

Izetta looked around in confusion, but then she saw her, the woman in an emerald green dress walking gracefully into the field with a satisfied expression.

The first thing that went through Izetta's mind was that the photo in the brochure didn't do her any justice.

Everything about her emitted a strange, compelling allure, from her long flaxen hair, her neatly parted bangs, and her sparkling eyes with a stunning color that reminded Izetta of breathtaking lavender fields.

Lavender.

She was like whorls of lavender under the sunset, with both refinement and dauntless confidence showing in her every step, and Izetta could smell the sweet overtones in her perfume when she got close.

A blossoming wild flower that thrived in vigor and rose over the others, as if tempting anyone to pick her.

Izetta never met anyone quite like her.

"...Princess Finé, um...we didn't expect to see you here..." Bianca mumbled to her, "We thought you're going on an overseas trip with your friends..."

"Oh, that? I've cancelled it. This guard recruitment is far more interesting than travelling to a random crowded place with some jetsetters. I've been secretly watching from the palace since the beginning," Finé laughed, "I saw these two girls showing up late, and I think it's about time I come down here. Your performance is simply marvelous, Sophie."

The white witch, who was clearly uncomfortable with the changing atmosphere after the princess showed up, only managed to give out a mumbled thank you.

"And as for our last participant," she turned to Izetta with an impish smile, "I request that I measure her myself."

Even Sophie looked surprised. Bianca, showing a flustered reaction Izetta never saw of her before, said to Finé with a loud voice, "E...excuse me? ?"

"You heard me, I want to take part in the assessment. Someone please bring me my sword," she said with a challenging tone, eyes never leaving Izetta's face, "I'm going to personally duel you myself to decide if you're worthy of becoming my guard or not. You don't mind it, right...?"

Izetta really hated how her name rolled out of the tongue of an Eylstadt royalty. It was sickening, smooth, filled with so much deceit and pride...

And yet...

"...Izetta."

So perfect.

Chapter Text

Lavender, the plant with one of the strongest, most useful fragrances known to man. Its delightful aroma could be utilized to alleviate anxiety, relieve sleep disturbances, and induce relaxation in periods of extreme stress. Both witches and humans knew to exploit the essential oils of lavender. With the correct herbs, lavender could be an effective medication for sleep deprivation.

Izetta had known all these since she was very young.

After her parents died, and she couldn't sleep for days, her grandmother would treat her with the scent of lavender and chamomile, and it became a significant part of her peaceful nights as a child.

That was why she couldn't accept that Finé reminded her of a fair wild lavender.

She had the grace for sure, probably from years of being obligated to act that way, but her speech was far more like a commoner than Izetta expected.

"...thank goodness I didn't go on that trip. Being jostled and jerked around in a place jammed with people wouldn't be fun at all."

She was just an ignorant brat who didn't know about the world...

"Especially with that jilted Julia...she'll just make us visit every jeweller in the country or shop for one of those boring expensive designer jobbies..."

She didn't know how much her grandmother suffered...how much Izetta suffered...

"While I get to watch something truly entertaining right here at home!"

She let her father kill and torture the witches.

She was just a good-for-nothing princess...

"Izetta," Sophie approached her and whispered to her in an urgent tone, "Izetta…control yourself."

Sophie could sense the disturbances in Izetta's magical energy, shaken and contorted by anger.

"...don't misunderstand," she muttered back, "I am going to do whatever it takes to become her guard."

"Yeah, but, just a little bit more and you'll be shooting her with daggers out of your eyes. Literal magic daggers. Jockeying for victory is fine and all but it'll be stupid if we don't survive our first day."

"Gee, I'm not the one whose careful attitude now doesn't jibe with how she recklessly showed off her 'shooting skills' earlier."

"Okay, smartass, I'll shut up for now."

There was a tap on Izetta's shoulder and they heard Bianca's disgruntled voice. "Are you done discussing your...strategy?"

"Oh, yeah! She's yours now. Go beat her up, whatever," Sophie pushed her forward.

Izetta shot a glance at the Princess. Finé had just changed into one of the blue Eylstadt military uniforms and was now jiggling her sword from side to side while humming to herself.

Izetta understood that the royal guards would be pretty skillful with melee combat. But this princess...just how good is she...?

If she had her own training sword, she must be practicing quite often, and Izetta didn't have the chance to touch her blade. She had to rely entirely on her own ability, and the longer the fight, the higher the possibility of her magic being found out.

"You look so tense. Just relax, okay? It'll be over in a jiffy."

Izetta found the Princess smiling brightly at her again, sending a repulsive sensation down Izetta's spine.

However, as the Princess raised her sword at her and turned it diagonally in front of her body, Izetta's heart started thumping faster. It'll be okay... she assured herself, her magic beating strongly in her grip, I've done something like this with Sophie before...there's no need to get the jitters...pretend it's just playing around with a sword...don't jinx this by overthinking...

However, in less than a second she realized that sparring with Finé couldn't just simply be concluded as "playing around".

As soon as Bianca's whistle was heard, Finé, displaying a level of speed unlike that which Izetta expected to see of a princess, swiftly stepped to the side and charged forward, immediately swinging the blade at Izetta in a wide arc. She was fast, far faster than Izetta's muscles could hope to compete, but her magic was a different story. Izetta nearly missed blocking her, and the pain that coursed through her arm when their swords clashed with each other showed just how powerful she was.

In that short pause when the swords were crossed, their eyes met and Izetta could see the depths of those lavender orbs again.

She was so close her scent was engulfing Izetta, and she could see the corner of the Princess's mouth slowly turned upwards.

She was serious.

She wouldn't take the power out of a blow before their weapons collided.

Izetta gritted her teeth and repelled her so hard that she pushed her back. Without missing a beat she charged her magic in the sword just enough to enable her to swing her weapon at Finé's speed. The Princess was predictably able to parry her, but she couldn't hide the surprise in her face when Izetta proceeded to send more strikes her way, each of them faster and harder than the previous one.

But that woman just would not back down. Their match quickly took on a new level of competitiveness. The clanking of the swords became louder, moves more exaggerated and rapid. Every time Izetta executed the correct string of counter-strikes, beating the Princess back several paces, she would rally and return with quick whirling deflections. Izetta had to spend so much energy for her sword to keep up with the Princess, and at the same time control the amount to hide the fact that it was magic doing the fighting for her.

The Princess probably didn't realize she was dueling against magic of all things, but her stamina and unwillingness to relent was incredible. There was also something mesmerizing in the elegance of her maneuvers and movements, which distracted Izetta at least once every few swings.

Izetta's mouth was beginning to become quite dry and she could no longer feel her legs. She knew that she would yield to her exhaustion sooner or later, and if she slipped and lost control of her magic, it would spell death for both her and Sophie.

Meanwhile, the Princess seemed to be enjoying this more and more.

There was a pleasant enthusiasm radiating off her face, she seemed to have the uncanny sense of where Izetta's magic would move her sword every time, and it was getting much harder for Izetta to parry her every blow. Fighting Finé had taken every scrap of strength Izetta had held in reserve, and although she couldn't pay any attention to her surroundings in such an intense battle, she knew Sophie was anxiously biting her nails.

Darn it...she just won't let me win...

Izetta could see the vigor, the excitement in the Princess's face, and she felt a little bad for having to ruin it because she simply couldn't afford to lose.

In her last, desperate struggle, when their weapons crashed into each other again, Izetta quickly reached forward and touched the hilt of Finé's sword. Her fingers brushed against Finé's, and the princess's widened eyes and the pink hue on her cheeks told Izetta that she apparently noticed it.

But it was Izetta's one and only chance.

Izetta used the last bits of her strength to utilize the magic on her sword for a succession of rapid-fire strikes, and as the sound of clashing steel rang out into the yard, Princess Finé's sword flew high into the air, to land behind Izetta, quivering as it stood point-first in the packed dirt.

For a few moments, there was nothing but silence, with both the viewers and fighters still overwhelmed by that match.

Izetta stumbled on the ground, trying her hardest to maintain her balance when she was breathing so heavily and her arms were shaking. She grabbed the wrist of her sword-holding hand, stopping it from making jerky movements after the exertion of using her magic in such a harmful way.

"That was..." the Princess whispered, gazing at her empty hand in wonderment, "...unbelievable. You're a natural."

"That's...!" For some reason Izetta couldn't accept such a praise after cheating so thoroughly to win, "That's just...luck. I'm not that good."

"No, that was pure talent, I can tell."

"No, Princess, it is not," she denied, staring at the ground the whole time.

She didn't understand why the Princess's insistence to compliment her made her feel a bit elated inside.

And as she stood there, covered in sweat in a light blue military uniform, Izetta couldn't help but steal a glance.

"Your movements...they were beautiful. It's like your sword was moving on its own."

Izetta swallowed hard. She had to divert this topic...or else.

"So...am I...worthy to become your royal guard?"

"Far more than that. Bianca!" she called out.

"What is it, Princess?"

"I want this girl to become my personal guard."

Wrinkles of surprise appeared on the Commander's forehead.

"But...Princess..." she protested, while the royal guards behind her put their hands on their mouths, "I don't think she..."

"That is all I request of you. For the rest of the new recruits, I will leave it all to your discernment," she interrupted, "I want Izetta to be with me at all times. She still has a lot of weaknesses, but in terms of skills and raw power, you and I both know that she far surpassed many of the applicants."

"But...we cannot let someone new become your personal guard. It's too dangerous."

"What's this all about...?" Sophie piped up.

"The Archduke proposed an idea of having a personal guard to accompany the Princess at all times," Bianca explained to her, "I think he prefers to have someone specifically for this job because we have to escort the other members of the royal family, too…"

"I cannot blame Father for being worried about me, so I will go along with what he wants," Finé sighed, "This is probably caused by his campaign against witches."

With the mention of the word "witches", Izetta's eyes grew darker.

"Do you have anything to say… Izetta...?"

"I..." she took a deep breath and bowed down before Finé, "…I feel honored that Princess thinks so highly of me, and I would do anything I can to fulfill her expectations… I know I'm not worthy, but if Princess wants me to become her personal guard, then so be it."

"I still object to this," Bianca responded, "Just because she has the skills and manners doesn't mean she can just suddenly hold that position."

"The looks, you forgot the looks," Anna added.

"I swear that I will defend the Princess with my life," Izetta spoke again in a small voice, "It is what I came for, to dedicate myself for her protection... I've dropped everything to be here, I don't mind being out of job as long as I can try to become her royal guard. I understand why you cannot accept me to do it, so I will do everything that I can to convince you…"

"Bianca..." Finé turned to the Commander with pleading eyes, as if she just found a puppy that she really wanted to adopt, "Can I have her...? Please...?"

"Princess, your safety is my top priority. This is, in my judgment, an inappropriate thing to do. Outrageous, even. I simply cannot allow it."

However, Izetta could see the little cracks in Bianca's coldness when the Princess just wouldn't stop staring at her and in the end Bianca let out a long sigh.

"Alright. I will give her a chance. But I still can't let her be alone with you at all times. We will keep a close watch on her."

The exhilaration that brightened up the Princess's face was borderline adorable for Izetta.

As the witch threw her sword to the ground, glad that she could finally get rid of the heavy weapon, she found herself gazing longingly at the sky.

Step one of her plan was complete.

She could relax a bit for now.

But as Izetta joined up with the guards to the palace and Sophie whispered wickedly to her ears, "Such a fine actress you are. Imagine her face when she knows you're here to destroy her family", she was aware that she didn't have much time to rest.

The rest of the day felt like a blur for Izetta.

She was so exhausted that when the royal guards showed Izetta and Sophie their new room in one of the palace towers, Izetta's head immediately hit the pillow on her bunk and she fell into a deep sleep.

When she regained consciousness, she was covered by a thick blanket and Sophie was sleeping soundly on the bed over hers.

She gingerly got up from her bed, realizing that she hadn't even changed out of the clothes she wore during the match. Shaking her head, she looked around her to examine the room for the first time.

It was small, quiet, and smelled of hay and old wood which made Izetta think that it used to be a storage room once. There was nothing there except for their bunk bed and a small desk by the window. The gentle moonlight attracted her to gaze outside...to the lingering light from the city of Landsbruck, with its familiar gorgeous Alpine backdrop. The vast expanse of jet-black sky seemed to engulf the town, with a canopy of luminous stars flickering one after another into the night.

Somewhere out there, across the limitless ocean of darkness, her grandmother was watching her, illuminating the sky as one of those shimmering stars among her other departed witch ancestors.

"...Grandma...I'm in Landsbruck now..." she mumbled, "You always spoke ill of this place...you probably didn't expect it to be this beautiful..."

I am inside the palace of the Archduke who tortured and murdered you.

Oh, what would Izetta give to just turn this whole building into dust right at that moment.

The symbol of witch genocide and hatred.

But she had to be patient...as long as she continued to spew lies that flattered the Princess, she got a step closer to her ultimate goal.

And then this palace will fall...alongside that fair lavender.

Izetta unconsciously clenched her hands. The memory of their match was still fresh in her mind. She was so pretty, and so strong, that it almost felt like a waste that she had been grown and nurtured in this accursed palace...

Then out of the blue, Izetta's musings were interrupted when she noticed something outside the window.

It was a lean white figure, walking down to the palace gardens like a ghost.

Izetta thought it was at first...but then she saw the outlines of long blond hair, and she instantly recognized who it was.

"Princess Finé...?" she wondered out loud.

Isn't this like...two in the morning...?

What is she doing...?

She observed the figure as she made her way around the gardens. She seemed to be wandering there aimlessly, prompting Izetta to think that something was wrong.

For a few minutes she just stood there, contemplating on her options.

...I'm a royal guard now...aren't I...?

She had an obligation to protect the Princess, and something was not right here. If she wanted to do a professional job on it, might as well start now.

That thought finally jolted her into action, she quickly changed into a random shirt and a coat she grabbed from her bag and rushed out of her room, trying to remember her way to the grounds through the dark, dimly lit corridors, her footsteps echoing on the soft blue flagstone floor and through the ancient high ceilings. From Bianca's quick orientation just now she knew the palace consisted of four sides around a central quadrangle and over three hundred rooms. It took a small army of servants to upkeep such a large abode and indeed most of the rooms were never used. The von Eylstadt family usually dwelled in only one corner on one floor and rarely stepped foot in the rest of the palace, but Finé was different. Bianca told them that the Princess was... "adventurous", and she loved sneaking and hiding around the palace when she was a child, freaking out her maids and bodyguards on a regular basis. By this point the Princess probably knew every nook and cranny of the palace better than the rest of the residence. Sophie giggled when Bianca recounted the story to them, and Izetta herself couldn't help but smile a little.

When Izetta arrived in the palace gardens, the cold weather immediately chilled her spine. The grass was covered with the sugar-frosted coating of winter, and the night was filled by the chorus of the lonely hooting owls in the dark, illuminated by the golden gleam of the globe lamps that were scattered among the groves of trees and bushes. Izetta walked past the pond in the center of the garden and the neatly trimmed evergreen plants and flowers, looking around for signs of the princess, until she reached the end of the garden, where there was a small open space surrounded by young cypress pines.

...what the heck am I doing here...? she asked herself, feeling a little silly because she couldn't find the Princess, This is all a waste of ti-

"Boo! Guess who? ?"

Izetta nearly had a heart attack when a pair of hands suddenly wrapped themselves around her eyes.

"Princess? ?"

"You knew? That was quick."

"I saw you wandering here from the window! And would you please let go of me?"

"Alright."

Izetta whirled around and came face to face with the blond woman, who was standing sheepishly there in a nightgown covered with a thick coat. Her hair flowing freely down her back seemed to radiate a gentle glow under the stars.

"What are you doing here, Izetta?" she asked innocently.

"I was about to ask you the same thing...!"

"Ah, I'm always here at this time at night."

"For real? ?" Izetta exclaimed, "But... it's dangerous to be here on your own at this hour...!"

"I already know that."

Izetta gaped at her in bewilderment.

This woman might be a princess of a powerful nation...but she's strange! Strange!

Finé put a finger on her lips and said, "Don't tell anyone about this, okay? I always ask my guards to leave my room alone at night, and I have memorized when and where they're patrolling the corridors, so I can sneak here without being noticed."

"Why are you doing this...?" Izetta asked, remembering how concerned Bianca looked about the Princess's safety, "No...wait, why are you telling me this...?"

She watched how that pair of deep lavender spheres emptily searched out the skies.

"...perhaps I am hoping that you will be the one to take me away..."

Izetta grew silent, not knowing how to respond. The Princess flashed her a bitter smile and continued, "I'm sorry, I think that warrants a little more explanation...will you listen?"

Izetta nodded awkwardly and Finé walked toward one of the pine trees, brushing her hands over its clusters of needle leaves.

"After Mother died, Father becomes so protective of me. He only allows me to hang out with a very specific set of friends, in a very specific set of places. I cannot even sneak out to buy my favorite pie anymore. The palace gates are locked tight nearly all the time and I am not allowed to go outside freely nowadays. It's suffocating...being trapped inside here every day, while having someone constantly following you around to 'protect' you. It is no joke trying to find just a small moment of privacy. Nighttime is the only moment they leave me alone, the only moment when I could breathe a bit more easily. Or when I outright lie and hide myself from them...like just now. But even then there's no hope for me to even walk around Landsbruck without his supervision. I was hoping... that if you're the one who becomes my personal guard...unlike them, you could give me a little space..."

Izetta listened to her story with her thoughts clouded by skepticism.

That murderer...a protective father...?

She found that really hard to believe, or imagine.

Finé absent-mindedly ran her fingers through the rings of branches. "I understand where he's coming from. He's my father, he just wants what's best for me..."

The way she gazed at Izetta with a dejected expression reminded her of one of her grandmother's lavender flowers in a glass case, burnt by magic to release its rich fragrance to the air.

A lavender, trapped in a glass case.

That was what she was.

Should Izetta pity her...?

She was just a princess whose biggest problem was being locked inside a massive palace...so trivial compared to what her father made witches go through.

But Izetta remembered how she watched the lavender burn in the case for a long time...wondering why such a beautiful flower had to die in this way...

Finé suddenly let out a chuckle and said, "Sorry, I'm boring you out with this story, aren't I? It's just that I never had anyone I can talk to about this since forever."

The words nearly caught in Izetta's throat, but she managed to say it. "...it's not boring."

That tiny surprise in the Princess's eyes caused a knot to form in Izetta's stomach.

"You have the right to experience all the good things out there, Princess. He might be thinking of your safety, but for that he takes away your freedom and I think that's wrong of him. You are not boring or weird for hoping otherwise..."

She assured herself that she was just using this chance to get on Finé's good side. That was all. There was nothing of essence in what she said.

But the Princess wouldn't be aware of any of that, and Izetta could see a tear forming at the corner of her eye when she laughed, "I...don't know what to say. I'm so used to my guards disagreeing with me and lecturing me about safety that hearing those words coming from a guard just feels...bizarre, you know...?"

She gave Izetta the softest smile she had ever seen and said, "But I'm happy. So happy. Thank you, Izetta."

An unknown heat slowly crept up Izetta's cheeks, contrasting the cold frosty air around her face.

Izetta felt like she was back inside her grandmother's room again, drifting to sleep as the relaxing lavender scent filled her chest with warmth.

No...

Don't even think about it...

Izetta tried to shake those feelings off by talking. "Why doesn't he let you go out to Landsbruck...? It's the capital city...shouldn't it be safe...?"

"I guess he thinks it's still dangerous because a lot of witches used to live near the town..."

Izetta had heard of it before. There was an abundance of ley lines in the area, and witches had a tendency to flock in those places, but that was before the Archduke's witch hunt began and changed everything...

"Why..." Izetta couldn't hold herself back from asking, "...does your father hate witches so much?"

Finé gave her a long vacant stare before replying to her in the most normal tone possible, as if she was talking about the weather.

"He said a witch killed my mother," she said, "Do you believe that...?"

The winds of winter blew past them and no more words were exchanged afterward.

Izetta didn't know what kind of face she was making.

But there was a hint of apathy in Finé's eyes which made it painfully clear for Izetta...that the Princess couldn't care less that her father was planning to exterminate witches from the surface of the Earth.

Chapter Text

"I have a feeling my sister would ask me, 'How is the undercover mission going?', but I guess the more correct question is 'How is having a steady job for the first time in your life going?'"

Izetta didn't have any energy left to give her a response and they lay, exhausted, on their bunk bed at night, several days after they arrived in Landsbruck.

They had forgotten that the royal guards were part-military, and they had a strict training regimen that ruined Izetta and Sophie's tiny stamina every day. That didn't count all the guard duties that they did, including all the mind-numbing night shifts. It didn't take long for Izetta and Sophie to experience a complete burnout, and Bianca was none too kind to give them any breaks. She wasn't the only one who wanted to become the Princess's personal guard, and she didn't know if she had any power left to jostle for that prestigious position. Before Izetta came to the palace, she never knew there were so many kinds of martial arts in the world. When she finally learnt what "judo" meant, she landed face first on the floor with a bleeding nose, and she associated it with the pain ever since. The royal guards also had driving lessons, and they were a complete nightmare. On her very first try, Izetta almost ran over a cat and she jammed on the brakes so hard that Bianca's forehead nearly hit the dashboard.

Clearly, this mission wasn't going so well for them.

"…We need to do something about this, you know..." Sophie drawled, her voice muffled by her pillow, "In this rate...we won't get any information...let alone obtain that stone..."

It was true. The Archduke was rarely seen around the palace, and although they met the Princess in a daily basis, they hardly did anything much around her.

Izetta did learn about her rebellious attitude and adorable quirks...like how she would go jogging around the palace while wearing jodhpurs just to confuse everyone, how she would watch Atlantian shows on TV and call everyone Joe Sixpack, despite knowing what it actually meant, and how she looked so happy when Izetta got her jokes.

However...

"Those are not why we're here for...!" Sophie shouted at her, "Those are all useless information!"

"Still, we get to know her better?" Izetta tried to reason with her.

"Yeah, right, we get to know the brat better but we're not getting any closer to our goal! Because, unlike you, I don't think that is time worth spent!"

"Unlike me? ?"

"You have this eloquent gaze when you're looking at her, and I have a knack for noticing these sorts of things. You like watching her doing all those silly stuff."

"But I don't!"

"Give it up already, Izetta. Showing that kind of interest to a human is like...so creepy. I know some witches who would suit you better than that dirty human."

"Stop teasing something that will never happen," Izetta snorted, "There's like, less than a dozen marriages between a witch and a human in the last hundred years. And all those couples were executed by the Council for revealing the secret of ley lines anyway."

"In case you've forgotten, we don't have a Council anymore. They're pretty much the first people that mad king killed. Not too early for you to join the club."

"What? A club of dead people?"

"Exactly!"

Izetta let her laugh to herself from the upper bunk, but after a few moments she was back to her old cranky self.

"…This is serious. We have to do something before we die here aimlessly," she went on, "What we need right now is...information."

"Which we have been struggling to get for a while now. They never seem to openly talk about that stone. It seems like a forbidden topic around here. Joining in any conversation doesn't help," Izetta sighed in exhaustion.

"Obviously. Since they seem so secretive about this...there is probably a direct order from the Archduke to never discuss it around the palace."

"Which means..." they said in unison, arriving together at the same conclusion.

"The only person who can tell us is the one who can freely defy the Archduke, with no repercussion, in a way that would never be suspected by him. So the royal guards are automatically out of question. Then the only person left is..."

There was an uneasy pause. Izetta heard Sophie scrambling up from her bed and her face appeared upside down over Izetta's bunk.

"...you do this," she said abruptly before gleefully vanishing back to her bed.

"Just me?" the redhead exclaimed, "Isn't this supposed to be a joint effort? ?"

"You tolerate her better than I do. And I'm using the term 'tolerate' very loosely here..."

"Can you please knock it off with the whole 'Izetta likes a human' thing..."

However, she knew from Sophie's chortle that she was not going to let that down so easily.

So they found a temporary way out...kind of...but how could they possibly accomplish that...?

Sophie's answer was simple, although Izetta couldn't help but think that she was half-joking when she said it.

"Your relationship with the Princess is not close enough. She is the key to our success. We have to do something to make you girls closer."

The implication in that sentence almost made Izetta blush. She was glad Sophie was lying on her top bunk and didn't see how embarrassed she looked now. "I think her proposal to make you her personal guard would definitely come in handy. You can spend lots of alone time with her."

"The problem is everyone else doesn't seem to approve of it."

"Who cares about that? She's the princess, if she likes you enough to make you her personal guard no matter what, everyone will back off," Sophie pointed out, "You just need to make that happen."

"I...don't know if I'm likable enou-"

"Remember what I said about you having this eloquent gaze when you look at her...?" she cut her off, "Well...if I'm not mistaken, the Princess also looks at you in exactly the same way."

Every time Izetta thought about having a closer relationship with Finé, there was this painful lump in her throat.

Even after everything Sophie said, she couldn't deny that everyone in the castle, including Finé, thought she was just an ordinary human girl.

She couldn't imagine the look on Finé's face if she found out that Izetta was a witch, assuming she was not going to do anything to stop her father.

"He said a witch killed my mother...

Do you believe that...?"

There was doubt somewhere in there...mirroring the uncertainty that grew inside Izetta's mind.

But that was not important now.

Lives were on stake and Izetta didn't have time to wonder about the Archduke's true motives. All Izetta knew was that if she didn't do something, there would be no witches left on Earth. As long as Finé believed that Izetta was a girl from the countryside who came to sincerely protect her life, Izetta wouldn't have trouble approaching her.

"If I'm not mistaken, the Princess also looks at you in exactly the same way..."

Sophie clearly didn't say that as a joke...but an honest observation to push Izetta to get closer to Princess.

Deep inside Izetta's mind, and locked away so tight that she didn't need to think about it...was the possibility that Finé felt an attraction for her, no matter how little.

"That just makes it easier for you," Sophie would say, "You have to take advantage of this."

Beyond ill-minded jests, it would never occur to Sophie that a witch could ever fall in love with a human. It was just unthinkable morally and socially, a witch had a duty to continue and preserve their ancient magical bloodline, and like the white witches said, as the last of hers Izetta was obliged to survive this whole ordeal. If a witch marries a human, then she would be committing a taboo against a sacred tradition that had persisted for hundreds of years. They said it was extremely bad karma, an act so wrongful, so foul that they would never had a witch as a daughter. The punishment for such transgression was the worst of all: having their bloodline severely cut off forever.

However, sometimes when Izetta looked at the Princess, she wondered why there was never a witch as beautiful as her.

Sure, she could be playful at times, but when she was off doing her princess duties, meeting important people from all over the nation with that professional, elegant smile of hers, or taking care of paperworks as her father's replacement...Izetta couldn't help but gaze in awe. And when their eyes met and the Princess grinned shyly at her, she thought that her heart was going to leap out of her chest.

She's just a human...

A dirty human who probably bears a grudge on your kind...

Nothing would ever come out of this...

So Izetta shut away those thoughts, and focused on the task she had in hand.

Sophie probably disagreed with her, and Izetta knew she was racing with time, but in her opinion she had to go slowly and carefully.

If her attempt to approach the Princess was too obvious, Bianca or the other guards would notice and it wouldn't be good for them.

She had to wait for a chance, for the time when the royal guards believed in her enough to let her be alone with the Princess.

That chance didn't come too often...but days turned into weeks, and they all slowly got used to each other's presence. Anna in particular seemed to like spending time with Izetta, giving her tips about using weapons and handling royal customs. Little by little, the royal guards began to let Izetta stay with the Princess alone in a room, but never long enough for them to have any meaningful conversation.

Little did they know that Izetta already found a way to get closer to the Princess behind their backs, although it didn't work as well as she thought it would.

Like she said, Finé continued to have her midnight walks, and once in a while, when Izetta saw her in the gardens outside her window, she would come down to see her.

"Ah, Izetta. I've been waiting for you."

Izetta gave her a confused blink. "...Princess, you are not supposed to be waiting for me. My duty is to keep you safe, and the other royal guards would've probably told you off by now, but-"

"But you won't," Finé said with a knowing smile, "And in case you're wondering, I said that so you know that you are not intruding on my privacy...Izetta."

It shut her down instantly. The Princess always made her feel all sorts of strange things. Even now, when her figure covered in an oversized coat and a thick long scarf seemed to dazzle her under the gentle glow of the moonlight.

It made her secretly happy that she was a royal guard, that she had an excuse to watch Finé closely, to observe every tiny movement she made and every little detail of her gorgeous face.

No matter how much she hated herself for even feeling those things.

Even when they were alone in the gardens like this, those emotions stopped her from taking another step. She just stood there and kept watch as she followed the Princess around the gardens, breaking into small talks here and there. It was like if she went too far...everything would spill out and she wouldn't be able to restrain those emotions in the back of her mind anymore. She decided that she was just marveling at the beauty of that single lavender flower from a safe distance, never intending to come any closer.

She didn't realize her body was shivering in the cold until the Princess pointed out, "Izetta...? You okay...? You're shaking."

When Finé decided to walk closer to check on her, deep flush immediately spread across Izetta's face.

"No! I'm, I'm fine...I'm..."

"You look so tense..." her head cocked curiously to the side.

Probably because your face is right in front of mine...!

"I'm okay...!" she exclaimed, now trembling as much as the pine leaves around them in the wind.

It was followed by a loud sneeze, convincing the Princess that she needed warmer temperature.

"...I'm sorry, Izetta," she chuckled, and goodness that was the prettiest chuckle Izetta had ever seen, if only she wasn't so distracted by the Princess finger rubbing her red nose, "I made you go down here in such a chilly weather."

"It's nothing at all, Princess...!" she denied, but she couldn't hide her runny nose.

"Seriously, you can go back up no-"

"I want to be with you."

When she saw Finé's eyes widening, her hand immediately jumped to her mouth.

She was just saying that because she needed to stay with the Princess.

She was just saying that because she needed to get closer to her no matter what.

She was just saying that as a part of her mission.

And then why...

"...You want it so much that you would go out in a freezing weather in this time of the night...?"

...did the Princess's nervous laugh made her heart beat so much faster...?

The painful lump in her throat returned, and it stopped her from pondering over it further.

However, it all fell apart when warm wool was thrown around her shoulders and wrapped around her neck, making her blush darken considerably. She was completely speechless when the Princess wrapped it tighter around herself. Clutching it, Finé inhaled and smiled softly at the witch, who seemed to have lost half of her brain power from their close proximity alone. She could smell Finé's scent straight away...that intoxicating smell which reminded her so much of the lavender flowers that used to accompany her sleep every night.

No matter how much she tried to resist, she found her body involuntarily snuggling into the scarf, her shoulder brushing against the Princess's.

"This feels much better, doesn't it...?" she sighed, nestling into her and Izetta's shared scarf, "It's really warm..."

It was not just "warm" for Izetta. It was scorching, although in a way that made her feel so comfortable, so addicted to it. Then she felt the slight and fleeting touch the Princess's hand made on hers, and she had to bite her lip to stay calm.

Please...my heart...stop it already... Izetta thought desperately, fixating her eyes on the pond that reflected the silver gleams among the floating clouds, She and I will never be together...

Everyone is relying on me...

My ancestors are all watching me from the skies...

I don't have any excuse to justify myself...

She's an enemy...and she won't be this kind to me if she knows my true identity...

I don't have time... for this nonsense...

However, she still took a few more moments to soak up the extraordinary feeling of sharing the long scarf, before directing the Princess to a friendly conversation as they walked around the gardens. Izetta asked her a random question about a detective TV show they watched together just now, and the conversation took off from there.

Sometimes it surprised her just how...normal talking with Finé was.

Finé never forced her to reveal too much about herself, she listened to her talking about her hometown or childhood experiences, and asked innocent curious questions that never made Izetta uncomfortable. They would sit for hours in the living room, watching the news or Finé's favorite shows on TV, and never once did Izetta feel strange around her, despite them being practically raised in completely different planets. Finé was patient, and she would explain to Izetta stuff that would make the other royal guards laugh, because there were a lot that Izetta needed to learn of the human world (or as Sophie said it, "modern city life" as they were disguising themselves as "country bumpkins"). Many times, Izetta had to remind herself, that Finé was not her friend and she would never be one.

"...I can't believe they just end that episode with a cliffhanger like that! They seem to make us believe that the guy with the journalistic background did it, but I think it is an inside job. What do you think, Izetta?"

"I agree, they gave a lot of subtle hints that pointed toward the latter..."

"Did you see the mark on that doll with jointed arms? Didn't it remind you of something...?"

"That's...! That's an amazingly sharp observation from you...!" she gasped.

"Fufu...call me Detective Finé."

Izetta let out a laugh. "By the way, Princess, the sceneries in that show are marvelous, aren't they?"

"They are," Finé agreed, "Ah, how I wish I could visit those places..."

Izetta saw how Finé's eyes wandered to the star-filled sky. "...what kind of places do you want to visit...Princess...?"

"Definitely not somewhere jam-packed with tourists..." she replied, "I want to be somewhere quiet and beautiful, somewhere that can steal my breath away..."

"Alone...?"

"Alone," she repeated with a smile, "I love my people, but sometimes I just wish I could fly up high or climb up a mountain right now and immerse myself in the splendor of this country in peace..."

Izetta remembered when she first experienced that as a child.

One night, she was racing on a broomstick to the top of the mountain with Sophie, exchanging taunts while speeding past the thickets, letting their untrained sense of direction lead the way.

Then they burst out of the forests, landing on one of the mountaintops and for a while, they could only stand there mesmerized.

The brightly colored houses looked like tiny cakes from such a high place, and the streetlights and window illuminated the villages like birthday candles, slightly obscured by the mists that flowed down from the tall mountains. There was plentiful greenery as far as their eyes could see, and they could see a train making its way through the plains, puffs of smoke coming out of its chimney.

From that distance, everything felt insignificant.

Humans, witches, they were but children in the immensity of nature.

Why does it matter if we're different...?

"Izetta...?" The Princess asked her when she didn't respond for a while.

Against her better judgment, the witch flashed her a warm smile. "...Let's go out there someday, Princess..." she said, "Up high in the mountains, or somewhere else where you can enjoy the scenery to your heart's content...!"

It was Finé's turn to be silent, and Izetta felt like she had crossed some line there.

"Ah...w-what am I saying...Um...but it's okay if you want to go by yourself...I'm just..."

"No," the Princess quickly said, her eyes lighting up, "No, let's go together, just the two of us!"

"Just the two of us...?"

"Yes. It's a promise, Izetta..." she held out her little finger, "...When my father has finally ridded this world of witches... I want to travel together with you."

Those words sounded louder in Izetta's ears than the gunshots she heard during her royal guard training.

It reminded her of who this person beside her was, a violent wake-up call that darkened the shades in Izetta's eyes.

How foolish they were for even thinking that any of these would ever come true.

"Sure...Princess..." she said, raising her finger and entwining it with Finé's. She felt how soft and smooth the Princess's finger was compared to hers, which was rough from her lifestyle and training for magic.

We can't be more different...

There was not a jot of sincerity in Izetta's voice when she said to Finé with a sweet smile, "...It's a promise."

Izetta spent the rest of the night sitting on her desk, windows open wide as the moonlight shone on her downcast eyes.

She felt like waking up from a long slumber. She mumbled her resolution there, over and over, until the sun finally rose and Sophie was awoke. They had a small, drowsy talk about their mission again when they changed into their uniforms.

"Wouldn't it be much easier if we could point a gun to the Princess's head and demand her to spill all the secrets of the stone...?"

"Sophie, you know we cannot carelessly use force in enemy grounds."

"I'm aware of that, but don't you think it'll take too long for us to-"

"Leave it to me."

"What...?" Sophie said, missing a button of her shirt.

"I think I have a chance to do it. Please give me time."

"Wow," she whistled, "Is it just me, or you sound more confident than before...?"

"I will definitely make her reveal those secrets," Izetta said, putting on her white royal guard uniform and gloves, "For all the blood of our kind that they have spilled, I would not stop until that stone is safely in our hands."

Sophie let out a chuckle. "It's great that you are ready to go all out," she said, tying her hair into a long ponytail, "Since we are among the guards chosen to accompany Princess Finé on her diplomatic mission to the country of Westria."

Chapter Text

When Izetta and Sophie encountered a problem that they could not solve, a little magic would do the job for them. At first they relied on it heavily, prompting Izetta to point out that they would be found out someday if this continued. As reluctant as Sophie was, she agreed to tone down the usage of their magic and underwent actual royal guard training. Having the quality of their performance suddenly dropped considerably would raise suspicions, so they still took advantage of their magic to a moderate degree. Little by little, Izetta realized that they had unconsciously developed a style of magic that was probably never seen before. They didn't just learn how to properly use firearms and weapons, but also how to better combine them with magic. After awhile, she started keeping a diary of her progress, documenting how they became more proficient in gauging the minimal amount of magic they needed to direct their bullets or increase the strength of their blows. Izetta found out she could also charge the bullets and mainspring to make outrageous shots that could go through fortified steel.

That made her think that...human invention and magic actually went along better than she thought.

Better than most witches thought.

Clearly, there were a lot of things that they missed with their strict isolationism policy.

If... Izetta would think while wielding her gun, If we don't have that policy in the first place...

Would we be living peacefully with humans...?

"No. You're probably expecting some kind of positive, idealistic answer, but the answer to that is clearly no," Sophie said, waving her hand.

They were standing around in the palace yard, dressed in full royal guard uniforms, watching various things being loaded into trucks to be taken to Westria with them on train. It was a clear sunny day, something they welcomed after periods of hail and snow, and they leant against one of the trucks, as workers busily walked back and forth in front of them. The Princess was there, clad in a maroon formal attire and speaking to an elderly man with a heavy jowl about the cargo. It seemed like Eylstadt was bringing a lot of gifts for the neighboring Westria.

"Humans can't even live peacefully with their own kind, what makes you think they can do it with us?"

"Well...I guess not all humans are like that."

"Yeah, and those horrible ones are massacring us at an alarming rate. After this is all over, I want to go somewhere unreachable by humans and stay there for all eternity."

Izetta grew silent. Most witches thought the same way as Sophie did, the belief that humans and witches could never share a community together had persisted for over a millenia.

However, the longer Izetta lived with them, the more she became intrigued of the tiny details in their culture, like the colorful masks and coats that were currently being hauled on the trucks. She was so curious that she went up to the Princess and asked her about them.

"Ooh, those are the masks that are traditionally used for our Fasnat carnaval," Finé explained, "Those coats are used to cover your whole body. Our carnaval tradition maintains that not even a single strand of your hair should be seen. There is a clasp on the hood to fasten it on your head so it won't fall during the carnaval dances. With the right size, the costumes could hide you so well that nobody would know it is you behind the mask, and that is the appeal of our Fasnat carnaval. I heard Westria has its own Fasnat, so we're sharing our culture and tradition with them to deepen our friendship."

"Oh, that's interesting," Izetta remarked, when she saw some workers pushing several carts of shells, "...I see you are giving them weapons, too."

"Westria is a peaceful country, but they value weapons more than anything."

"A peace-loving country...that jumps for joy when receiving weapons...? Where's the logic in that?" Sophie piped in.

"Fear is the best protection, I guess. Westria is a traditionally neutral country that stocks weapons like it's going out of style. And it is an honor to present them our newly developed shells and anti-tank rifles."

"Anti-tank rifles?"

"Yup, see those big rifles over there?" Finé pointed at the humongous firearms whose length was nearly twice Sophie's height. It was equipped with a dual bipod, with two sets of legs, one with spikes, and the other with skids, and its magazine, which was mounted on top of it, was more massive than any that Izetta had ever seen. "We got the idea to develop those from the Nords. They're really heavy though, it needs at least two people to move and operate."

"Gee, I won't want to get anywhere near that thing," Sophie commented.

"You won't. It's probably one of the strongest anti-tank rifles in the world now, but tank armors would definitely catch up to it. The future of weapons development is interesting."

Izetta glanced at Finé's excited face and wondered.

Why do humans love weird ugly things like rifles and tanks?

She couldn't follow the talk afterward because Finé kept jumping about from one topic about weapons to another.

"Princess! Everything is ready! We'd better go now if we want to keep up with schedule!" Bianca called out from her car.

"Okay!" she turned to wave at Izetta and Sophie, "See you girls on the train later...!"

Carrying her handbag with her, she got into the car and Bianca drove them off, followed by a few trucks laden with cargo. Izetta and Sophie would depart with the rest of the trucks that were still parked on the palace yard.

The redheaded witch watched the Princess's Steyr 220 GläserRoadster rolled past the palace gates. It made her a bit happy to see Finé so excited, she definitely wasn't given a lot of chances to go to a foreign country on a train, although Izetta heard it was about to be retired as a civilian train. She was just about to ride on one of the trucks when Sophie spoke out of the blue.

"...when you said, 'not all humans are like that', were you referring to the Princess...?" Sophie asked, "Don't get me wrong, I still don't like her, but she's probably one of the better humans out there. She's fun, she's strong, she can take a joke, she has style, she's a smooth talker...and oh, did you know she can juggle?"

Sophie probably expected Izetta to laugh along with her, but her mind was already somewhere else.

There wasn't any other way to answer Sophie's question...

"...no," she replied, "She's just like her father. She thinks we are pests that deserve to be purged, and she feels fully justified in letting him do what he wants. Don't be fooled by her kindness."

With her thoughts even more of a jumbled mess than before, Izetta didn't notice Sophie cocking her head to the side and spoke with a concerned expression. "...I wonder why..." the white witch said, "...that it awfully sounds like you're directing those words to yourself."

Trains were one of Eylstadtians' main modes of transport.

It wasn't rare for Izetta and Sophie to see those giant snakes of steel crept across the countryside, the soft rumbling noises of their wheels and chimneys slicing through the usual quietness of the prairies.

Being raised as witches, it never crossed their minds that they could ever board one of them someday. The adults around them always thought they were silly and loud, since witches never really had to rely on any kind of land transportation, but for children like Izetta and Sophie, that long series of railroad cars were interesting. When Sophie was feeling particularly adventurous, she would challenge Izetta to try and touch one of the coaches, which Izetta would always turn down.

Never had Izetta imagined that she would ride a train as a human.

A streak of magenta and violet ink spiralled in the clouds when they arrived. The train station was a piece of architectural brilliance, a remnant of the distant past which showed from every detail of its wonderful gothic structure. It had a slate roof and rusty guttering, crafted onto its wooden beams. Its hard cobbled stone floor sat cold and rough, and frost had crept into its crevices, to hide from the heat of the streams of passengersidly coming and going. The train that Izetta and the others would board was a military train, so she wouldn't commute with these humans, but she couldn't help but look at their appearances, as her love for crowds remained unchanged. There were some people heading toward their platforms with newspapers and briefcases on hand, families having a small chit chat with one another, and children running about happily. A man with a thick, bushy moustache was talking with a young woman, whose bullmastiff stood proud and alert by its master's side. Izetta heard their conversation as she walked past, it had something to do with how they were currently job-hunting.

The atmosphere was filled with sounds of the announcements from the PA system and conductors, train whistles, and sharp hisses from steam locomotives. The deeper they walked into the station, the farther they got from all the noise and the bustle, and the train platforms became more specialized. Coaches were replaced by freight cars, and jumbles of stacked containers could be seen here and there. When they finally reached their train, it looked grimy and old compared to the shiny ones earlier. Since it was in the middle of being converted into a civilian multi-purpose train, it still had the combination of military and civilian elements, with various kinds of cars attached together, from normal-looking coaches with comfy-looking seats, a diner complete with the tables and chairs, to baggage cars, boxcars, flat cars, and several armored cars by the end.

"Not too shabby," Finé commented, running her fingers against the steel, "It's one of the oldest trains in our collection, so I guess it's about time for it to retire from military use. It's also perfect for our trip since we're transporting a lot of things, weapons included. It's still pretty sturdy, so it also gets protection covered if somebody decides to jump on us."

When she saw that Sophie and Izetta's faces had become as pale as the wall behind them, she let out a laugh and said, "Just in case."

They waited for a few more hours until all their things had been moved from the trucks to the train. Izetta and Sophie spent some time admiring the new interior of the train. Finé let them wander around inside, and she couldn't help but laugh watching their antics. Izetta and Sophie didn't need to hide their curiosity and wonder in front of the Princess, she had never minded their ignorance of modern inventions like trains. They moved from car to car, until they arrived in one that seemed different from the others, with at least a dozen tables and elegant chairs.

"This car looks like a...restaurant!"

"It's designed that way! Although it doesn't seem to be operational yet," Finé replied.

"Can we order food here?"

"We will be able to, but for now, there's just tables here."

"Aw, that sucks," Sophie pouted, followed by Izetta and Finé's giggles.

The Princess, the royal guards, and some soldiers shared one of the extravagant coaches. Sophie immediately took a seat beside the window, pulling Izetta along with her as she kept pointing at stuff outside. Izetta felt like they were children again, watching the guard blow his whistle while waving his green flag and the train started to move slowly, leaving the platform behind before gradually attaining speed. As soon as Sophie realized that the windows could be opened, she immediately did it to feel the wind blowing on her face. She probably loved it because it felt like flying, the train was moving at a great speed, jerking and rolling across the tracks with a gentle motion. Lighting danced across the plains and faint moonlight glimmered off the snow-capped peaks of the mountains beyond. They could see people too, village women carrying pitchers of water, farmers coming home from the fields, and young boys shivering in the cold. They pointed at interesting stuff that they saw and talked the things they could do at their destination, like how they could go kayaking there...whatever kayaking was. Izetta and Sophie were so noisily excited that Bianca, who was sitting next to the Princess in front of them, shouted at them to shut up twice.

In several hours, the sounds of conversations died down and the only thing Izetta heard was the rhythmic clickety-clacks the train made on the tracks. Everyone in the car was already fast asleep, except for her.

At least that was what she thought at first...before she heard her name being called softly from the seat in front of her.

"Izetta..."

The witch looked up and her gaze met the gleaming purple spheres that shone under the wavering light. Kneeling on her seat, she put a finger on her lips and whispered, "Want to go out for a walk...?"

It was the first time the Princess ever invited her for something. Izetta's body, against her wishes, had an unexpectedly visceral response to that subdued, enticing whisper. She wished her mind could be more subtle about it... but Finé didn't seem to notice as she gave a look full of hope to Izetta. It was an offer she could not refuse, mission or no mission.

Hesitantly, begrudgingly, and with her mouth becoming painfully dry, Izetta agreed to her invitation.

Overjoyed, Finé went to her and pulled her aside, Finé's hand clasping hers the whole way. It was quite scary for Izetta when she had to cross from one car to the other while the train was running. She could see the tracks flying by, the wood slats seemingly leaping at her between the tracks. She nearly held to her radio and gun in their belt holsters, fearing they would fall out. It was so loud out there that she could not hear anything, and it felt like she was going to be sucked into the opening between the cars.

However, Finé's hand was always there to lead her way.

They went past a few cars until they arrived at the diner again.

It was dark in there, but there were more windows that let the moonlight in. Izetta was about to turn on the lamps that was on every table, and soon found out that none of them worked.

"Just our luck, looks like they haven't connected the electricity to this car yet," Finé smiled apologetically, gesturing at Izetta to sit on one of the tables with her, "But that's okay, isn't it better like this...?"

Izetta had to agree with her. The faint light from the window alternating with shadows from the train's movement shone a beautiful, mysterious contrast on the Princess's pearly white skin as she rested her chin on her hands. Izetta sat across from her, and for a while they didn't speak, merely enjoying the sight of the night outside.

Or at least trying to...because when the scenery outside the window could never compare to the woman sitting in front of Izetta, it was hard to focus on it.

But Izetta had a mission, and she shall never let petty feelings like that hinder her.

She tried to open a conversation with her, and as usual, the Princess responded to her easily. She wondered if Finé was friendly enough to tell her about the whereabouts of the stone.

Should I...test the waters...?

Will I need to coax it out of her...?

Or even use force...?

She was hardly listening when they arrived at the topic of the royal guards.

"...and then there's Adele, I think she's Bianca's junior by one year. She's currently our most proficient sniper, she has made truly outstanding development these past few years. When it comes to swordfighting, though, Sarah is definitely our best girl. You should learn a thing or two from them."

"I did. I think I still have a lot to learn from them."

"I'm sure you'll be just as good as them in no time," she said, "You're the one I chose to be my personal guard after all."

For a while Izetta only gazed at the Princess, who was fondly admiring the scenery outside.

Would she hate me... if she knows I'm a witch...?

Would she never look at me with those beautiful lavender eyes...if she knows I've been lying to her...?

And why am I thinking about these things...?

What Finé thought about her didn't matter in the slightest, and actually, the more pain Izetta could give to her, the beloved daughter of the monster who killed her grandmother, the better.

"Your father...he's the one who suggested you to get a personal guard, isn't he...?" Izetta asked, "He's rather protective of you."

"He is...I've told you before, haven't I...?"

"Yes...that he becomes protective of you after your mother, the late Archduchess, passed away."

"I remember him starting to care about me just after that happened..." she said, playing with her thumbs, "To him, I am only my mother's replacement."

"...at least you still have a father."

Izetta immediately clammed her mouth shut.

She knew she should not have that kind of kneejerk reaction to the Princess's words.

She was just... so jealous of her.

She had all the wealth and protection a country could offer, she didn't have any right to complain to Izetta, who was all alone in this world, and whose life was in neverending danger because of Finé's father.

She couldn't hold back, it was just all too painful for her.

She was angry at Finé, and with some justification actually, but she was aware that she was throwing herself into a chasm. She should not be talking like with this with Finé, she should be constantly singing praises to her and worshipping the ground she walked on.

Someone as spoiled as the Princess couldn't possibly-

"...I'm sorry."

Izetta couldn't believe what she heard. She stared at Finé, eyebrows so high up her forehead, trying to process that it indeed came from her and no one else.

The Princess lowered her head and said, "I think I just... dumped my problems on you without any consideration for your feelings... I'm...really sorry about that. That was...disrespectful of me, I apologize..."

"What...what are you talking about, Princess? ?"

How could a princess of a nation talk about being "disrespectful" to a lowly royal guard? ?

"If there's anyone being disrespectful in here, it's me, Princess! I'm the one who should be apologizing!"

"But I have said something I should not have," she said firmly, "And it doesn't matter who I am and who you are, it is my responsibility to apologize."

Izetta felt her hand tremble, her blood boiling inside her.

For some reason, she really disliked that response.

Responsibility...?

You're talking about responsibility...?

How dare you talk about responsibility... when you know nothing of what it means...

"...what is the responsibility of a ruler, Princess...?" she asked calmly, almost monotonously, although she was trying her hardest to keep her voice from shaking.

Finé seemed to be taken aback by her sudden question. "The responsibility of a...?"

"The responsibility of a ruler. Is it to protect the people of the nation...?"

"Why, yes. It is the responsibility of a ruler to protect their nation, " Finé said with an obviously puzzled, but intrigued, expression.

"Even if it means killing innocent people?"

"Of course. If another nation tried to attack us with ill intentions, then it is our duty to fight back, even if it means killing their soldiers who have yet to murder anybody."

"But what if that nation never attacked anybody?"

"...will you get to the point already?" Finé's tone became as cold as ice, "I can feel that there is something you want to say to me, and I dislike talking in circles."

Under that frozen, mighty glare, Izetta hurriedly weighed her options.

She couldn't show any leanings to the witches now when Finé was looking at her with her suspicion as clear as day in her eyes.

What could she say that emphasized neutrality and perhaps, curiosity...?

"...your father...he hates witches because your mother is killed by a witch, right...? I just...wonder why he thinks that all witches have to pay for that sin..."

She waited, believing that the question was safe enough to tread this dangerous territory, but Finé didn't immediately answer her. When she spoke again, her tone was remorseful, and Izetta could see her avoiding her eyes.

"...do you know about the Anathemas...?"

Izetta was aware...that if she replied to that question with a yes, the Princess would find out at the spot who she really was.

It was a very obscure term to call witches with an outdated belief that they shall never live peacefully with humans. They were long thought to be extinct, but if Finé knew about these witches, then they still existed somewhere in this world. Izetta had never heard of these new Anathemas, though, so it was possible that it was just something they made up after hearing that name from the legends. Even in the witch community, Anathemas were shunned because they had very violent, radical views of the world, and not much were known about them in general.

Izetta adamantly shook her head and Finé didn't continue.

Whoever these Anathemas were, either they were responsible for all this mess or it was a non-existent culprit that the Archduke framed as his wife's murderer.

Or neither.

Izetta tried to keep the conversation going. "...the stone that your father used...it is your family's heirloom, isn't it...?"

"It is, although I don't really know all the details," she replied, "I heard it was given to the von Eylstadt family hundreds of years ago."

"From whom...?"

"From an Anathema."

"What...?"

Izetta's stomach churned.

Why did someone belonging to a group of radical witches decided to hand over their greatest weakness to their sworn enemy...?

"A former Anathema, actually," Finé explained, "At that time, the Anathemas had just invented the stone to strengthen a dangerous form of black magic called 'Hexenium'. The traitor was one of the witches who forged the stone, and she feared that the Anathemas would one day use it to go on a rampage and destroy humanity...so she stole it and secretly handed it to my ancestor...whom she was in love with..."

Hexenium, the darkest of all magic, absorbed literal energy from the ley lines and condensed them to form spheres of absolute destruction. Izetta never saw it with her own eyes, but she had heard anecdotes, and saw illustrations of how it looked like. She remembered the furious scarlet color on that picture, a splash of pure anger that stained the sky. Even now, it was deemed too dangerous for witches to summon, so Izetta could understand the fear in that witch's heart.

"This story was kept secret from the public at the time to protect the traitor's identity. After that, the firstborn child of the ruler of Eylstadt is always a girl. It gets downright creepy at times. Perhaps it is because of the curse of that witch."

A curse...

"...how could you call betraying her whole kind in order to be with somebody she loved a curse...?" Izetta said, hurt etched deeply in her every word, "...how could you...?"

"Izetta..."

"I don't understand you, Princess," she said with shivering lips.

I don't understand why I'm feeling this way about you, either.

"That was just...how the story was handed down to me..."

They're horrible...that family...all of them...

I can't believe they are this cruel...

"Izetta...?"

Curbing her temper, the redhead felt like she might just keel over and throw up in disgust if she stayed.

She quickly stood up from her seat and bowed down to Finé. "I'm sorry, Princess...but...I feel a bit sick. I'd like to go back and rest..." she said abruptly, "I think you should too, Princess."

"Izetta..." Finé looked more baffled than ever, but she consoled herself and decided, "...alright. But we have to talk more about this tomorrow. I don't want to leave this hanging. You hear me?"

Her calmness slightly comforted Izetta somehow. "Yes...Princess."

Finé gave her a warm smile. "You are right...it's getting pretty late and it is time for us to rest. Let's go back now."

Izetta's fingers stayed clenched and cold during their whole way back.

They didn't hold hands the way they did anymore.

The train peacefully continued its journey into a ravine...but soon afterward, dozens of hooded shadowy figures began to descend from the trees above. Every single one of them was floating, each riding a long metal rod, and they quietly followed and surrounded the train, like humongous black vultures waiting to swallow their prey.

Chapter Text

The first thing that stopped them dead in their tracks was the deafening explosion from the tail end of the train.

Then the car shook violently as Izetta stood protectively in front of the Princess, her eyes darting wildly to the window and she noticed the shimmering rays of the rising sun showering the edges of the precipice on the side. The ravine that they were passing in was very wide and flanked by two steep cliffs that towered over their train, but the railway bridge was built pretty high up, so they could not just jump off the train if they wanted to. Izetta quickly realized that if someone decided to attack them at that moment, they were pretty much trapped inside.

"What's happening...?" Finé's whisper reached her ears. The Princess's voice sounded much calmer than Izetta expected.

"I have no idea, I-"

At that very moment, the radio in her holster started blasting messages directly to them, some from Bianca and various royal guards, the other sounded like Sophie's distinct angry voice.

"Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!"

"Izetta! Izetta, do you copy?"

"Izetta, where the hell are you? Report back immediately!"

She quickly fished it out and responded to their panicked voices, "I'm in the empty coach after the dining car. The Princess is safe with me. I repeat, the Princess is safe with me."

There was a crackle of static before Bianca replied. "Good job. Now go back to our coach as fast as you can."

"Bianca, what in the world was that explosion just now?" Finé asked.

"Princess...you won't like this, but..."

"What the fuck! ? Shoot them! Shoot them all! !"

"Are those...flying trees? ?"

That was when something appeared on the window outside and their voices were completely wiped out from Izetta's mind.

Two black-hooded figures were peering inside, and they both were, unmistakably, flying. And not just flying, because they were constantly following the train which was moving at full speed. One of them released her grip from the metal rod she was riding and clutched the window sill. Her face was obscured by her hood, but she leaned closely toward the window, as if trying to get a better look of Izetta and Finé.

Izetta's heart threatened to stop.

"…witches...?"

If witches would ever use their powers in such a blatant way, it could only mean two things.

One, these people were Anathemas.

And two, they were here to take the life of one person.

As soon as that realization hit her, she saw something much larger hovering behind those two's backs.

She only caught a glimpse of the massive pine tree trunk angling down toward their window before it grew bigger and bigger at an alarming speed, prompting Izetta to pull Finé to the ground and yell, "Princess! Get down! !"

Less than a second later, the tree impaled the car through the window with such mighty force that it shattered the glass instantly and went diagonally through the other side of the car, nearly cutting off both Izetta and Finé's heads when they ducked on the floor. The coach wasn't made to withstand such an attack, the tree created two enormous holes on the wall and the floor as easily as a sword piercing a jelly, and the resulting shockwave from the magic broke almost all of the windows inside. Feeling the car tilting as she was pinned down by the huge trunk, Izetta glanced to the side and among the mess of branches and leaves, she noticed the debris of ruined seats and pieces of her radio scattered around her, so at least the tree succeeded in destroying their only means of communication. She shot a look at the window and realized that the hooded witches were gone.

But right now there was something far more important.

"Princess! Princess, are you okay? ?"

The blonde beside her moved, and Izetta spotted a single trail of blood from her forehead. "I'm alright...Izetta. But it's a little hard to move under here..." she panted. The car was shaking and rattling in a worrying manner, the attack just now must have damaged its wheels.

"We have to get out of here fast."

She tried to crawl out and release her lower part of her body, but the unwelcomed piece of wood was large and firmly in space after being lanced through a train car. She tried strangling, kicking, with less than pleasant results. Her mind was awash with horror when she realized the possibility of being stuck.

They saw Princess... she thought, If...they attack this car again...now when we are completely defenseless...

She didn't want to imagine that.

Aside from when they were using it with intense negative emotions, witches could not recognize other witches' magical energy. For these Anathemas, Izetta was no different than the human beside her. They would kill her too, alongside the Princess.

Should I...use magic when Princess is right here next to me...?

Finé 's searching lavender eyes met hers and she swallowed.

No...

We're too close...she would find out...

She promised herself to use magic as a last resort. Fear and adrenaline pushed her to try harder. Beside her, the Princess was doing the same thing. Sometimes she admired how resilient she was, but now was not the time to let Finé break her back. If anything, it should be her who broke her back protecting her.

With that in mind, she kept at it, using her whole upper body strength and pain tolerance to squeeze herself out. She felt like she just cracked a few bones in her exertion, and after several seconds of extreme agony, she succeeded in slipping out of the gap. Her feet were cold and numb, but at least she could still walk properly. Without wasting any time to check if the rest of her body was still functioning, she hurriedly went to the Princess to help her out. However, from this new angle she discovered that Finé was stuck in a smaller gap than hers. It was so tiny that she even feared the Princess's legs were crushed, but she remembered Finé had a very slender figure.

"...I feel like a sandwich," she sighed, "You should run and save yourself, Izetta..."

"What are you talking about? ? I swore to protect you, Princess...!"

"This tree looks so old it probably weighs at least a ton. You won't be able to push it off me. I don't want to get you into trouble..." she said, "Besides, I still managed to get hold of my gun. At least I can try to stay alive."

"You're in no position to act so selfless! I'm your guard, I have a duty to defend you with my life...!"

"...You might be my guard but...you are my friend," she said with a pitiful smile, "A friend that I thought I would never have. My dearest friend...Izetta. At the very least I want you to survive."

It felt like the trunk just leave a gaping hole in Izetta's heart instead.

The lavender, trapped in a glass case, thought the girl from outside the glass was her friend...without knowing that the girl was holding a burning match behind her back.

Am I here...to protect the flower...? Or destroy it...?

Her hands shakily clenched into fists. It's both...

And now is not the time I leave her to die...

"...sorry to keep you at the job, Izetta."

"No! Let's try again, Princess! I..."

But before she could finish, a number of dark shadows were cast on the floor, leaping out to the from the windows outside.

Izetta's worst premonition came true...the hooded witches came back.

They were surrounded by floating boulders nearly twice the size of their car and even bigger tree trunks. There was even a brightly burning kerosene lamp.

These Anathemas...they're serious. They're going to demolish this whole car just to kill the Princess.

Those people outside were Izetta's kind...the ones who shared the same sentiments and mission as Izetta: to ensure the survival of witches.

While this woman inside the car with her was her the daughter of their greatest enemy, and Izetta understood why the Anathemas wanted her dead.

It was just probably purely for revenge...or a statement that they were fighting back...

However...

This is wrong.

The Princess is our only lead, and the Archduke will never be stopped if she dies.

Drawing her gun out of her holster, she watched the witches menacingly circling the car. Then when they were close enough, Izetta could hear the words that came out of their mouths.

"Princess..."

"Is it the Princess...?"

Witches couldn't communicate telepathically.

And if violence was the only answer...

"Back off or I'll shoot...!"

She shouted the warning loudly and clearly, and while shielding the Princess with her own body, aimed the gun boldly at one of the Anathemas outside the broken window.

She counted to three inside her mind, the same number as the witches outside, and with one final glance toward Finé, she tightened her grip and pulled the trigger.

Fresh blood spattered out of the witch's right shoulder. A shrill shriek echoed between the stone walls as she clutched the stain on her clothes and lost balance, falling into the darkest depths of the ravine like a raven with broken wings.

The disruption in magical energy is immediate; Izetta noticed the two other Anathemas had erupted into rage. Praying that she didn't just kill the first, she quickly whirled around and pointed, as quickly as she could, at the second witch and fired a shot. Her aim was less than satisfactory in her hurry, but it managed to hit her stomach and she let out a wail of pain. Some of the stones and trees they controlled fell along with them. Izetta had never fired successive shots that fast in her whole training, and aiming at moving, flying targets were much harder than she ever imagined. That was why when she tried to gun down the third witch, her concentration faltered. She missed; the third Anathema easily avoided her bullet, and she raised her arm furiously, prompting Izetta to expect that they were going to be hit by a particularly giant rock she controlled. However, just when the hooded witch was about to disappear from sight, Izetta heard a loud bang from behind her and saw a bullet going straight into the Anathema's outstretched hand. Howling in agony and covered in blood, she reflexively clutched it with her healthy hand and lost grip of the metal rod she was riding. The boulder dropped into the ravine before it could hit their car, and the hooded witch immediately vanished.

Breathing heavily and suffering from a king-sized headache, Izetta turned around and saw Finé pointing her gun at the spot where the witch was before, smoke still coming out from its muzzle. She smiled from the floor, and Izetta spotted a bruise at the corner of her lips.

"You've gotten much better at shooting, Izetta..." she remarked, "...but all this won't be necessary if I have my bag with me. I shouldn't have left it."

"Your bag?"

"Yeah, because..."

Right at that moment, the door of their car burst open, and three royal guards rushed in with their guns drawn and ready. Izetta recognized Anna, Bianca, and her junior, the short-haired brunette Adele.

"What in the world...I see they've done the same thing to this car, huh," Bianca said, "Princess...! ! Are you alright? ?"

"Bianca, good timing. I think the trunk is sliding off...please get me out before I'm squashed...?"

"Just a second. Anna! Izetta! Help me lift that tree. Adele! You keep watch of the windows. If there are any witches nearby, kill them."

"Yes, Ma'am...! !"

Several minutes later, they managed to get Finé out, and as she wobbly stood up on her feet, she casually wiped the dust off her skirt like nothing happened. Her calm attitude convinced Izetta that this was not the first murder attempt she experienced. Or perhaps not even the most outrageous one.

"What took you so long, Bianca?"

"Forgive us, Princess. They were attacking our car too. It took awhile to escape them. And even then the coach is heavily damaged. Sophie and some of the soldiers are injured... they were moved to the armored car as fast as possible. We're not sure how strong it is against their magic, though."

"I can't believe there is such a big group of violent witches that went unnoticed by Father."

"We assumed they are actually from a number of different tribes, Princess."

"What...? I'd like you to explain further, but it'll keep. For now, let's move to the armored car..."

However, before they could take another step, a blaring static from the PA system cut through the air like an eerie siren. It was followed by a deep voice of a woman, a voice so unnerving and otherworldly that it almost sounded...alien.

"Greetings, Princess Ortfiné of Eylstadt," her chilly tone reverberated in the car and the rest of the train, "You must have heard of us before. We are called the Anathemas."

Izetta saw Bianca and Adele exchanging confused glances, but Finé stood rooted on the spot, like a statue.

"Right now, this train is under our control. The ones who steered this thing, those men in uniforms, are all our prisoners. The only reason we are moving right now is because magic is powering the locomotive," the voice went on, "If you want to save them, Princess, meet us in the second car after the locomotive. Alone, with no weapons. If you run, or disobey us in any way, we will throw them into the ravine, one by one. Their cracked skulls would make a nice decoration in this ugly gorge, don't you agree...?"

Even Izetta was horrified.

Witches were peace-loving people who believed that magic shall never used to hurt other people.

The Anathemas were a direct opposition to that belief. Their principle was using their magic and violence to get what they wanted, which they assumed to be the most effective way. The horrible things that they had done in the past were the reason behind witches' bad reputation among humans.

"You are a good princess, aren't you...? Surely, you'll listen to their cries of help. You have ten minutes. If you don't come, we will split their heads open," she continued, "And, oh, can you keep a secret, Princess...?"

The voice sounded more gleeful now. "...If you come, we might also tell you what happened to your mother," she said, "Not a bad deal, right...? And remember, you have ten minutes."

With a cruel laugh, the PA system turned off.

The car was awfully silent for a few seconds as Finé gazed at her guards one by one. When she arrived at Izetta, she looked away and said, "...I'll go."

"No...!" Bianca immediately objected, "Princess, your life is important. More important than the train staff, in fact. These insane witches want to kill you, and I'm not going to let that happen. And about your mother..."

"But those men are my people, and I can't just turn my back on them. This has nothing to do with my mother. They will kill them in replace of me. I have to stop them, no matter what."

"But..."

"Bianca."

The Princess's sharp tone shut her up instantly.

"I am not going to abandon them, and that is final," she said with stentorian voice, "This is also for the sake of the people in the armored car, for the sake for everyone who is injured because of me. I was kept alive by my people's faith in me. I only exist because of their deep love and loyalty. That is why I must fight with them until the last drop of my blood is shed, in the name of my family's honor. My name is Finé, first Princess of Eylstadt and its next Archduchess, Ortfiné Fredericka von Eylstadt! I have sworn to never abandon my people, to do anything I can for them, and to fight to the very end for their lives! Even if I die, my father's crusade against those wretched witches will not stop. And for my sake, you will have to help him accomplish his goal, so that one day they will pay for my death and countless others!"

Seeing the anger in those purple eyes, Izetta felt like standing back in the White Witch Coven again, that same ire reflected in her own crimson pair of pupils.

"They are responsible for my grandmother's agony, and I would personally make each of them pay a thousand fold."

It was a toxic cycle of revenge that would never end, a blood feud like the one being waged by those Anathemas against humans.

...Was Izetta...the same as those mad witches...?

Would her ambition produce nothing but a perpetual war born of hatred and vengeance...?

Was that what Izetta really wanted...?

The Princess...she..truly, sincerely loved her people.

That part was not a lie.

For Finé, Izetta might not be one of her people but...

She would give her life for Izetta if she were.

"...As a princess, I shall always keep an appointment," Finé said, "But I'm not naive. If you girls decide to follow me, make sure to keep a safe distance. We don't want those men to be killed."

The royal guards saluted the Princess, which Izetta hesitantly followed. Their eyes locked with each other again and Izetta noticed the forlorn expression on Finé's face. However, the Princess could still force out a smile.

"I am really sorry about just now..." she said abruptly, before leaving with a muttered goodbye.

The only reason Izetta protected this person with her life, the only reason Izetta didn't want her to die...was because she still needed Finé for her plan with Sophie.

But that apology... and the courage she showed from the way she held her head high as she walked alone toward the lion's den... felt like a knife that was stabbed deep inside Izetta's chest.

There was no way she would just let Finé die like that.

And the royal guards felt the same way.

"Ready your weapons. You heard her, we are going to follow her from a distance," Bianca ordered, and they all nodded.

After waiting for several minutes after Finé entered the diner, and Izetta's hands already felt clammy from both anxiety and worry, Bianca gave a signal with her hand and the royal guards crossed the gap between the two cars as fast as they could. Kicking the dining car door open, the royal guards immediately scanned the place for enemies, but it was completely empty. Izetta's eyes fell on the spot where she and the Princess were sitting last night. She almost couldn't believe it happened a mere few hours ago...

"Coast is clear, let's move to the next car."

In the back of her mind, amidst the pounding heartbeat in her ears, Izetta couldn't help but feel that this was far too easy, far too quiet. Those witches couldn't possibly believe that they would just follow their orders to let the Princess go alon-

"This is how far you can go, humans."

When they were about to head out of the dining car, a hooded witch appeared from the other end. She had an uncanny grin on her face, as if tremendously enjoying this whole situation.

The royal guards didn't give her another chance to speak. Four gun muzzles were pointed at her in unison, and bullets were launched from them at nearly the same time.

However, the Anathema came there prepared. A table covered in white cloth beside the witch suddenly came to life and flew in front of her, turning itself into a shield that protected her from the shots. The bullets struck the table, creating multiple cracks on its surface, and the witch behind it was unharmed.

"Fuck, I hate witches," Anna spat.

The royal guards might see this as just another tough battle, but for Izetta, this could be her only chance to speak with one of the Anathemas.

That's right.

I can't just let this chance slip by...but I have to be fast. Fast enough to extract information and return to help Princess.

The redhead straightened her back and said to her friends, "...everyone, please leave."

"Izetta...?"

"Leave this witch to me," she said, "Don't waste your time here. Go after the Princess. I can handle her."

Bianca regarded her for a second, but as the Commander she was quick to make a decision.

"Try your best not to die."

With those words the royal guards left her alone, and she stood there facing the Anathema, with rows of tables and chairs between them. The hooded witch raised her hand, and Izetta could see the twisting magical energy around her body.

"You're going to face me, alone...? What a stupid girl you are. I don't expect much from a human."

Izetta took a deep breath, her heart slamming in her ribcage.

"...According to the witchcraft sacred code of conduct, magic must never be used manipulate, dominate, control, or harm a human. You know that, don't you?" she asked quietly.

The witch's grin vanished.

"The code of conduct...humans would never...who are you...?"

"A witch, just like you," Izetta said, a bead of sweat dripping down her forehead, "I am with them now for several reasons."

She barked out an unnerving cackle. "Witches would never work for humans," she hissed, "And from that color of your hair and eyes...you must be one of the Autumn Sorceresses. A pure one, in fact, since you have such brilliant red color. And the members of that tribe are all dead as far as I know, so you must be a survivor. Those humans must have kidnapped you, enslaved you. That is okay, my friend...the Anathemas will save you. They saved everyone, every single survivor of the massacre."

Izetta bit her lip. These people were not just witches, they were witches like Izetta. Young girls whose families and tribes were wiped out by the Archduke, and they were gathered to form an army.

"...why are the Anathemas here? What is your aim?"

"Don't you think the sweetest revenge we can have is a feast made out of that princess's flesh and bones on a platter...?" she said, licking her lips, "We would drink her blood as a vow to begin our invasion of the human world. Oh, and we would destroy this train while we're at it, so the world could witness our power."

"Destroy this train...?"

"Don't you know? Magic is controlling this train right now," she said, "And we have diverted its course to a broken railway, which lines up nicely with a deep chasm. That is just a safety measure, though, in case we cannot smash this whole thing into junk with just trees, fire, and boulders. Which I doubt."

Izetta's ears were ringing.

The situation had become much direr than they expected.

The Princess was heading toward certain doom, and so was the train they were all riding. The workers were one step away from being thrown into the ravine. Sophie was injured. The Anathemas had full control of their vehicle and were dead set on turning the whole train into dust, or derailing it to go off the edge of a cliff.

How did things become like this...?

Just a day ago she and Sophie were sitting together in their room, talking about the colorful stores in Westria and how they wanted to visit all of them. They even learned how to say "We're just looking" in other languages. For once, they were happy that they were kept away from work or grueling training in the palace grounds.

And now, Izetta was standing here, alone with a witch who held out her hand to her and said, "...Come with me, Sorceress. Together with the Anathemas we will rule the world. A world owned by witches. A world with no trace of humans. Without them, we can make everything in this world just so."

If the one who received this offer was the Izetta who stood in the White Witch Coven several months ago, she would accept it in a heartbeat.

However...she knew this was not the right thing to do.

Hate would only give birth to more hate.

And Princess Finé ...

Izetta could not imagine a world without her.

"Why do you want to kill the Princess? Can't you just kidnap her? Make the Archduke surrender the stone in exchange for her life? This is the perfect opportunity to do that, isn't it?" the redhead asked.

"...It is our age-old belief that if a von Eylstadt decides to abuse that accursed magical item in their possession, then the Anathemas must disregard the witchcraft code of conduct and cut off their main bloodline in any way possible," she said, "The reason behind that doesn't matter. We are just following the orders of our saviors."

Izetta gritted her teeth.

Did the Anathemas know something she didn't...?

Or was that just a lie that they used to justify the killing...?

Either way, Izetta couldn't just let this happen without more information.

Murdering the Princess now could prove fatal for them.

"...I'm sorry, but I cannot join you."

"What...?" The Anathema's tone was that of pure disbelief, as if it was unimaginable that a witch like Izetta would refuse her.

"I cannot. This is not how we are supposed to do it. If you kill the princess, the Archduke would only try harder to murder us all. It would not stop the cycle."

She clutched her hands, shaking in indignation. "...are you siding with the humans?"

"I am not! I'm on your side. But your methods are wrong and it will only result in more deaths for us. I have to stop you."

"...You give me no choice..."

Izetta could almost hear the rumble in her dangerously surging magical energy, and the pure, undiluted hatred in her furious screams.

"You have betrayed your whole tribe by protecting the humans... you let yourself being kept down by them...you are an abomination and an abhorrence...!" she shouted, "...And your existence is such a disgrace to our kind that you might just as well die...! !"

Chapter Text

The rain had been keeping up all morning, but royal guard training never stopped.

Obstacle run was the thing that Izetta hated the most.

It was long, exhausting, and difficult as hell.

She would never get used to all the jumping, climbing, and crawling, all while being drenched in sweat and mud. After doing it over and over for days, even Izetta questioned what the heck the purpose of all this training was, but the veterans had proven time and again that they could do this smoothly and perfectly, showing that they had done this thousands of times. Izetta would be ordered to run the course, again and again, while Bianca or the other royal guards watched her labor away.

"Too slow, Izetta...!" Bianca clicked her stopwatch with a scowl on her face.

"I'm trying...!" she cried, her voice almost drowned by the rain. Everything from her hair to her shirt to her knee-length socks was already soaked and filthy.

"You call that trying? You need a kick up the backside! Again!"

Groaning, Izetta wiped the dirt from her forehead and dragged her feet through puddles of water to go back to the beginning of the course.

"...and if you manage to finish this with at least a more decent result, we'll go back to handgun training," Bianca went on, "You still need more work in that area, too."

"Can you...let me rest a bit first...?"

The witch could feel Bianca's angry stare from under her umbrella.

"Izetta, do you know why we are doing all this training?"

"...to protect the Princess...?"

"And to keep you alive," Bianca said, "Do you understand? It's true that we must be willing to sacrifice our life for the royal family, but it is the absolute last resort. It is also my job to keep you alive. Agility, observation, quick problem-solving skills, even in the face of death...these are all qualities that will ensure your own survival. If you are not capable to do all this, then I cannot let you go out there and die pointlessly because you lack the proper training. You'd be better off getting the kiss-off from your job, then getting the kiss-off from your life."

She sighed and put a hand on Izetta's shoulder. "The Princess has a lot of hopes for you, so you'd better deliver," she continued, "And you've proven yourself to be quite a hard worker. I won't want to lose you so quickly too."

Behind that stern face and demeanor, her tone of voice was genuine. It put a small smile on Izetta's face. She felt a little bit of respect for Bianca, kind of.

"Thank you, Commander."

"Save all that gratitude for later. For now I am trying to keep you alive."

It was just as well that Izetta's heart was beating too fast for her to feel anything.

Floating chairs and tables that tried to smash her head off were definitely something she never expected to face in her royal guard job. However, Izetta was not a human. She might lack practice, but she was a witch and she knew she could handle someone of her kind better than her colleagues. In the hands of a witch, nearly anything can become a powerful, dangerous weapon. She knew she had to make a run for it, but she couldn't risk letting this furious witch following her from behind.

The Anathema wasted no time in launching one of the floating tables at Izetta. Barely missing the huge projectile by a hairline, Izetta rolled on the ground to avoid it, and it hit the wall behind her with an unholy metallic crash. She stopped right before a second table nearly crushed her hand on the floor. She stepped on the wrecked table, using it to propel her forward. What she did would probably seem dumb to onlookers, but in a closed, narrow, unstable space, the quicker she could end this, the better.

Brain ticking furiously, she charged her gun with magical energy in her dash, something that the witch in front of her could not miss.

"...a human weapon, huh...? Can't believe you've stooped that low."

"I don't want to kill you...so you'd better give up now when you can."

"I'd rather die than giving up to a traitor like you...!"

Just then, two more tables were hurled toward Izetta's way, and as they ground the walls and break the windows with a sickening screech, Izetta realized there was no space to avoid them. She immediately flung her arms and touched a table nearest from her, enchanting it instantly to act as a counter. The bewitched tables collided in the middle of the dining car with a thunderous bang. Izetta was thrown backwards by the magical shockwave, her head hit the corner of a chair and she tasted iron in her mouth. Seeing stars under her eyelids, she stood up just in time to avoid getting pulverized by more rogue tables. Then she realized that she dropped her gun in the blast, it was now lying halfway between Izetta and the Anathema.

Meanwhile, the witch across from Izetta sounded more and more insane by the minute.

"The Princess...the Princess...she's so beautiful like a flower...don't you want to see what she looks like with her petals ripped apart...?"

A shiver ran down Izetta's aching spine.

"It's a shame I cannot show you in that state just yet. She would be absolutely stunning, covered in blood from her head to her toe..."

"I don't want to see her like that...!" Izetta screamed, much louder than she wanted.

The witch's words sent painful images inside her mind, and it scared her, it scared her so much that the next time she was reunited with Finé, she was going to make completely sure that she was safe and alive, because she had to.

Why she thought that didn't really matter in the slightest.

Her attacks were becoming more ruthless, and Izetta couldn't keep avoiding them all. Enchanted wood made contact with her body a few times, and Izetta could feel her bones cracking under the blow, but she could not stop. Amidst the swirling chaos in the car, and the white table cloths flying about like ghosts, she willed the gun to return to her hand, and with partially obscured vision, she used her sense of magic to guide her, as much as she possibly could. She fired a magically charged shot, and with a trail of white hot sparkles, it went straight through three tables. However, just when it was about to reach the Anathema, a row of table assembled themselves into a globe to protect her, and this time Izetta's bullet couldn't even lodge itself in the wooden surface.

Not enough.

She lacked the power, she lacked the experience.

This witch had probably prepared herself to fight human guns.

She needed something bigger, stronger.

But for now...

"Why not, Sorceress...? She is your enemy too, isn't she...? Seeing her dead should be every witch's greatest pleasure!"

"Don't lump me in with you guys..." she muttered, her mind working in full speed to find a way to get through her defenses.

"That promise is what keeps me going," she said, "What keeps you going, Sorceress...?"

Her grandmother's face flashed inside her mind...but it peculiarly, unexpectedly...followed by the Princess's beautiful smile.

It nearly caused her to halt her dash. Those two images should never go hand in hand.

"You're wide open...! !"

Her blunder cost her a clean hit on her face that sliced her forehead open and left a deep, bloody gash that cut through her right brow and almost reached her nose.

Groaning in pain, blinking back tears and blood while lying on the ground, her hand searched around and found a foot of a table nearby.

'What keeps you going, Sorceress...?'

She clutched the wooden foot, her knuckles turning white as magic flowed from her body into the table.

'Why not, Sorceress...? She is your enemy too, isn't she...?'

She gripped it as hard as she could as the table began to float, pulling her along with it, and she could see the surprise in the Anathema's eyes.

'Izetta...'

'I'm really sorry about just now...'

Princess...

I don't want that to be our last conversation...

I really hate the idea of them killing you and drinking your blood...

I really hate it...

More than anything you ever said...

These people were bloodthirsty demons, and Izetta was nothing of the sort.

"What...what are you...?"

With her neck slowly being stained red, Izetta took advantage of the witch's shock to fly as fast as she could to her. The hooded witch quickly recovered and formed a shield around her again, but this time Izetta was prepared. She had observed that there was a small gap among that wall of impenetrable tables. Releasing her clasp, she avoided the chaotic jumble of chairs underneath and landed on the top of the table over the hooded witch. Gripping tightly on it with one hand to avoid getting thrown off, she shoved her gun barrel into the tiny opening between two tables and took a point-blank aim at the witch's chest.

The last thing the Anathema saw was the sparks of magic gathering inside the muzzle.

Izetta knew she only had one chance.

Filling as much energy as she could in the .32 ACP cartridge, she pulled the trigger with only one grip for the first time ever.

The recoil of the shot almost threw the gun out of her hand, but then she caught a glimpse of a red blot growing bigger and bigger on the left side of the Anathema's chest...like a blooming scarlet rose that lifted the heavy weight from Izetta's shoulders.

The hooded witch let out a wordless scream, and the barrier of tables around her fell down with an ear-splitting crash. Izetta's body dropped from the height that nearly reached the ceiling of the car.

Hitting the floor on her back, she coughed violently for a few seconds, it was like the air was being sucked out of her lungs all at once after the fall.

Still shaking uncontrollably, she laboriously got back up on her feet and stumbled to one of the overturned tables, leaning against it while breathing heavily.

After that, other than the sound of the train running on the tracks...there was only silence.

Another...

Another witch has fallen...

Humans were their mutual enemy...and yet...

All she ever killed was witches...

Tears streamed down her face and mixed with blood. She glanced quietly at the body under the pile of table.

"Forgive me..."

I will end the Archduke's reign in exchange for everything I have done...

I will end the Archduke's reign for you too...

She took a deep breath and walked through the rubble on the floor, pain still throbbing from the wound on her face.

However, when she was about to reach the door on the other side, she heard it again...the hiss filled with so much hatred directed her way.

"I won't forgive you..." she said, fingers clawing on the floor, "I won't forgive you...Sorceress...you have lost mind...you are betraying your kind...stop you...kill you...I have to kill you..."

"Don't move, you're-"

Izetta's words were cut short when she noticed the Anathema spreading her fingers and something began to form in the center of her palm.

Something floating and glowing, something evil. She recognized the furious pulsating red color, and her heart dropped to her stomach.

Hexenium.

She never saw anything like it before. It looked, and felt, unpleasant and off in so many places. Magic was never supposed to be condensed into such an unstable and compact form.

"Don't...! What are you doing! ? Don't you know how dangerous that is! ?"

"If I don't, I won't be calling it, will I...?" she said, as the Hexenium in her hand grew in size, "So long...Sorceress..."

Izetta soon realized that the red tiny cubes began to multiply exponentially as more and more energy was concentrated into it. In a blink of an eye, it was all that Izetta could see. It was big enough to kill them both.

During her time in the human world, she knew what humans called things like that. They called them ticking time bombs. An absurdly powerful one.

Knowing she had less than a second to escape, Izetta quickly turned the handle and jerked the door open. Slamming the door shut behind her, she made a frantic leap toward the next car, hoping with all her heart that she could still make it.

However, before her foot could barely touch anything, the car behind her exploded.

The impact was so powerful that the doors were ripped completely clean off their hinges, and flames burst out of its broken windows. The shockwave was enough to forcefully fling Izetta's body toward the next car, but not with the much needed balance. She only barely caught hold of the coupler below the door, dangling from it as the train traveled in full speed across the unforgiving deep ravine, and that single thing separating Izetta from certain death below was a damaged coupler which threatened to break after the blast.

...which would actually benefit a witch like her if it did, because her arm was so sore after all the events that day, she didn't know how much longer she could hold on.

But just as the horror scenarios of what could happen ran through her head, she felt a hand suddenly grabbing her wrist.

Followed by a booming voice even louder than the explosion just now.

"You stupid useless soul-eating dipwad...! !"

Izetta could recognize that snarky tone anywhere.

Sophie was there, standing in pure indignation with an arm sling over her left shoulder and her right hand clutching on Izetta's like a vice.

"Why is it that every time I took my eyes off you, you decided to kill yourself? ?"

"Sophie! Oh, thank goodness. Less talking, more action, please."

"Maybe I should just fucking drop you here and pulp every part of your face, so you'd know what death feels like! !"

"Sophie, can't you just pull me-"

"And while you were out there whoring yourself to the Princess, those snotty bitches turned my coach into junk and broke my forearm with even bigger junk...! !"

"Sophie...? Language...please..."

"Who fucking cares about language when those lunatics are kicking against the witchcraft code of conduct left and right? ?"

"They're the Anathemas..." Izetta sighed, "Now pull me up, will you...? We have some work to do."

When they were already safely inside the empty car, and Sophie had calmed down enough for them to talk properly, the first thing she noticed was the blood that caked Izetta's face and neck.

"...I see that you've pulped your own face before I have the chance. What the hell happened...?"

"The same thing that you've gone through. Anathemas happened."

"Can somebody explain to me why Anathemas still exist in this day and age?"

"My guess is as good as yours."

"I knew it's a mistake that nobody's been keeping up with those creeps."

"Anyway, there is something more important that we should discuss..."

Sophie grumbled under her breath, but she listened closely. Wiping her face, Izetta recounted everything to her, as fast as she could, about her conversation with Finé, how the Anathemas wanted her life, the attack in the diner, and the fate of the train they were riding.

When she was finished, Sophie only stared at her emptily, as if demanding more explanation.

"So what? What are we gonna do in this mess?" she asked, rubbing her bandaged arm.

"It's obvious, isn't it? We have to keep away from the cliff and fight them before it's too late."

"Are you serious? Fight them? And decorate my face with a bloody slit like you just did? They might be crazy, but they're still witches, and there are only two of us with three functioning arms. Also, if you go by the logic that anyone who wants us dead is an enemy, then everyone on this train is our enemy. Everyone. The royal guards would shoot us on sight if we openly act like witches. The Anathemas would stone us to death if we openly support the humans. It's a lose-lose situation."

"If we let the Anathemas have their way, we would lose the Princess, our only lead to the stone and the key to our success in the plan. And nothing would stop the Archduke from purging us anymore."

Sophie contemplated it for a while. "...I don't know... I'd love to see those jerks get their just deserts...but I'd just as soon sit here and do nothing as help you out..."

"Sophie..."

She sighed really loudly and said, "...okay, okay, I get it. I had a kind of feeling this would happen. What do you suggest we do in this chaos then...? We have to knuckle down, there're so many things we have to do all at once, and we cannot let our identity be known or else we cannot continue working as royal guards anymore," she said, "And by the way, from the reports from the radio, it turns out that the hostage thing is a lie."

"I...what?"

"The train staffs were trained military personnel and they put up a fight from the very first moment the Anathemas attacked the locomotive. All of them are dead except for this one injured guy, who tipped off the royal guards when he finally could. Kudos to him for telling us. In keeping with her hard will and recklessness, the Princess immediately made a run for it when she knew," she explained, "This train is pretty big, so they might still be chasing her. That woman will never go down without messing them up a little."

Izetta felt a wave of relief washing over her head.

Alive.

Princess is alive.

However, she wouldn't be for long if Izetta didn't do something.

"Where is Princess now?"

"I wouldn't know. After that it's pretty much just chaotic buzzing. Maybe my radio broke."

"Listen, Sophie. We have two main objectives, save the Princess, and stop the train."

"And? How do we save her? And how do we halt a whole speeding train from falling into a chasm? Erect a barrier around it? Toss the whole train off the rails?"

"They have stated that they are controlling this train with magic."

"So we just have to knock out whoever is controlling it right?"

"Not exactly. The reason they are using magic to direct the train is because they probably have no idea how the human controls work. That means when they seize control, the train is still moving forward in full speed. What we have to do now is fight the magic with our own. Secretly, if possible, because if it's too obvious they will try to stop our attempts to take over the train, and once they realize they cannot throw the train into the chasm, their attacks against the train would become more brutal and unstoppable. It would further endanger the Princess, and everyone else. Also, we are in a deep ravine between two cliffs, there are no safe spots we can put the train off the rails," Izetta explained, "Of course, we can't take full control when the original enchanter is still around. That's why the other most important thing we have to do is fight them directly. Create chaos so big that they have no choice but to send more of them to fight us. In this way, we can distract them from the train, and hopefully keep them away from the Princess at the same time. I think that is the quickest way to accomplish both objectives at the same time."

"...well, the most glaring problem in your plan is that we have to use magic for both of those things, which won't bode well when any human on the train finds out who we are, even when we are helping them," Sophie pointed out, "Also, fighting a herd of angry witches alone is surely not the best of ideas...You would need super powerful weapons."

"For that..." Izetta said, "I have an idea."

Izetta was aware from the beginning, that the things she would be keeping back from Finé would continue to pile up as time went by.

She never thought about them at first, none of them would be more important than her mission.

However, now she couldn't help but feel guilty...even when she was doing this to save the Princess's life. And she wasn't able to stop herself from worrying about Finé. For her, nothing could be more important than saving her now.

"Where the heck are we going?"

"To the cargo cars, where they stored all those festival clothes and weapons. We can make use of them."

"Do we really have to run with our backs bent like this? I feel like an old witch."

"We must keep down. The fewer people who see us heading there, the better."

"I don't care who sees us, but I'm so gonna wear that friggin' cool goat demon mask and no one's gonna stop me."

They made their way to the cargo cars, which were out of keeping with the rest of the train cars, and found out soon enough that they were all locked tight. But it was nothing that a little magic couldn't fix. Finé really meant it when she said the clothes for the Fasnat carnival was designed to ensure your anonymity. The coats were big enough to cover their whole bodies from head to toe, and they could be buttoned up so that they wouldn't get blown in the wind. With the clasped hood and masks, they were practically unrecognizable. Sophie was pretty pleased with hers, the meanest-looking horned mask she could get her hands on, while Izetta wore a white mask that only covered her eyes.

They looked up through the windows and saw some Anathemas fighting against human shooters from several cars. The royal guards and soldiers were putting up their own resistance, but it wouldn't be enough to stop these psychos.

"Look at them flying...it'll be tough fighting them when we're stuck on the ground," Sophie remarked.

"...that's true."

"Is there anything we can use to fly, like...something long, and hollow, and big enough for the two of us..."

"There is."

Sophie glared at her for a while.

Then she came into realization and her face contorted with disgust. "...you can't be serious."

"It's better than nothing."

"...I'm not riding that."

"Do we have any other options?"

"That's... um...oh whatever, Izetta, I'm so gonna kick your ass someday."

Chapter Text

The first Izetta felt like she must not join a human conversation was during one of the royal guards' training camps with the military.

It started out innocently enough, they were eating together on the lunch table and discussing how to live in the middle of nowhere with the cheapest supplies they could bring. They were comparing various supermarkets' own label foods and how to knock down prices in local markets when the conversation shifted to their own experiences with their friends and families. It turned into a fun exchange of interesting stories and accidents, at least until Adele began telling them about a curious encounter she had when she was out camping as a child.

"I know a witch, once," she started.

Izetta immediately stopped eating.

She had always dreaded having this kind of conversation with them.

Somehow...she was still afraid to know what her colleagues really thought about the purge.

"I saved her from falling into a stream. She's just a nice, normal girl, but I think she's dead now, huh."

Izetta thought her tone would be light and insensitive, like how some people had been talking about witches, but her voice was actually rather somber. The whole tone of the conversation they had been having changed drastically.

"...Can't help it. Witches are responsible for everything that's wrong with our country," Anna said matter-of-factly.

"But she's just an ordinary girl," Adele insisted, "She doesn't seem like she would hurt a butterfly, let alone human beings."

"Just leave it, Adele. There's really nothing we can do. Public opinion of witches now is more horrible than ever."

"Is it really true, though? Not everyone is going along with the Archduke's views," another royal guard, Sarah, piped in, "Sure, they're not the majority, but they are growing in number. They expressed concerns of how witches are treated."

"Are you serious? They sympathize with witches, who bring disaster to our land?"

"Something that small won't budge the Archduke. Or the majority."

"But the Princess...she would listen to them."

That caught Izetta's attention, but she didn't dare to say anything.

"And there's no harm in trying, is there?" Adele said enthusiastically, "I mean, I don't mind executing the ones who are violent and dangerous, but for the harmless ones, I wish I could provide them shelter or something."

"Then do build one, Adele!"

"Hey, I don't have that kind of money yet...!"

They all laughed at her.

"Maybe we take some time to understand them more...we might be able to learn something new about them...instead of just blindly hating them."

"But witches isolate themselves from humans, don't they...?"

"I'm not really against that, but what if they...you know...really are dangerous...?"

"Witches don't seem to punish those that hurt us, either. They're still roaming wide and free. That's why we have to take matters to our own hands."

"Whoa, really?"

"It's very difficult to tell which ones of them are dangerous and which ones are not. It's much easier to just kill them all..." Anna said again, "And the Archduke thinks it's their whole existence that is the cause."

"I don't agree. We still don't know enough about them."

It soon spiraled into a long-winded debate in front of Izetta as she continued eating her soup and trying her hardest not to listen to them.

The topic stayed unchanged until Bianca suddenly came and told them to finish quick or risk being late and getting assigned to KP.

Izetta stayed silent during the exchange, still having mixed feelings about the whole thing.

However, she couldn't hide her small smile when Adele patted her on the back and offered her some of her leftover meals with a huge grin on her face.

Humans are strange creatures, she thought.

"If you drop me, Izetta, you can kiss goodbye to my cooperation in this crazy plan of yours."

They were lucky that the Anathemas didn't know they were bringing far more firearms than they thought. When they arrived at the weapon-laden storage car, it was pretty much untouched. There were no guards around, making Izetta wonder if they were killed or called to help out the other soldiers. Once they got inside after opening the locks with magic, they quickly found what they were looking for: the massive anti-tank rifle.

"...I couldn't believe there would come a day I let a human weapon touch my crotch- Izetta? What are you doing...?"

Izetta spent some time examining the tank shells in the corner before going back to Sophie. "Sorry...I just need to make sure."

"We're not here to kill time," Sophie scowled, but Izetta had carefully put one leg over the gun.

"Try to keep yourself from falling," Izetta said, as Sophie awkwardly mounted the weapon behind her. The redhead gently brushed her finger against the body of the rifle, whispering, "We're counting on you" as sparkles of magic filled it with life.

"Remind me why I am going along with this again?" Sophie sighed, without keeping the dismay from her voice.

"For the sake of our kind?"

"And for the sake of having a loony as a best friend."

Izetta smiled to herself and tightened her grip around the barrel. "Just kick back and relax," she said.

"How can I kick back and relax when- whoa...! !"

Skipping nearly all steps of acceleration, Izetta launched themselves out of the car with such high speed that Sophie's head was flung backwards. Sophie knew they were in a hurry, but she still couldn't forgive her.

"Say something before you fly!" she yelled, "You have a passenger with a broken arm!"

"Sorry, not used to having one, and we're not here to kill time!"

"I know that already! It's still no excuse for you to act like a twerp-!"

"Hang on tight...!"

Ignoring Sophie's cried profanities, they rose until they reached a reasonable height to see the train in its entirety. The jet-black heavy rifle easily carried them to the sky like a broom would, and although the cold steel felt strange in Izetta's hands, she found that she could steer it without problems. It usually took her some time to have perfect control over something new that she used for flying, but this time it was comfortably smooth and steady... as if the rifle knew it was meant to be flown by her.

They made a dive to the train, adding more rapidity until they could catch up with the front, with the winds slicing all over their bodies. When it came to swiftness, she was very confident in her ability, because of how often she raced with Sophie on the mountains. And they had to be fast if they wanted to do this without any of the hooded witches noticing. Luckily, the humans provided enough distraction for the flying Anathemas. It was just for a few seconds, but it was enough for Izetta. When they were a few cars away from the locomotive, Sophie tapped on her shoulder and said, "This is enough, no need to get too close to the psychos."

Seemingly uncaring of her injury, she jumped over to the train car and crouched on the roof of the car, running her gloved hand against the hot steel.

"Sophie...will you be alright? I still think it's better to do it from the inside..."

"No way, I'm not comfortable in there. I need a guarantee that I can jump off this train easily whenever I feel like it," she said, "You do the rest of the work so I can be here as long as I can. Don't worry, I've got a real knack for staying alive. And just imagine if we all do. I get a vacation, and you get a bitchin' scar."

Izetta couldn't see Sophie's expression behind the mask, but she assumed the white witch was smirking.

"Let's kick this off and get it over with...!" Sophie cried, slamming her hand on the roof and magic quickly spread from her palm to the whole car. The pressurized air in the train line was released, triggering the emergency break system that created sparks of friction between the wheels and the rails. As the signal was passed from car to car, the train began to slow down considerably, but it was still moving really fast to their unwanted destination. Izetta hoped it was enough to buy some time, but Sophie would need to stay there to add more force to the brakes.

"Don't die before me!"

"Izetta, you're essentially making yourself a living target. Hope you come back without extra holes in your body!"

As Izetta flew away from her, she thought about how she never went into detail about her feelings for Finé to Sophie.

Although Sophie made fun of it a lot, Izetta was aware that it was all plain ridicule; like most other witches, Sophie looked down on a romantic relationship between a human and a witch. That was why Izetta kept what she really thought of Finé from Sophie, knowing her friend would never approve of it.

Most witches wouldn't.

The Anathemas would probably think it's enough reason to murder Izetta.

Although right now, they would try to kill her for something else entirely.

She could feel intense stares from all directions, and soon enough she was confronted by several flying Anathemas.

She maintained her composure, sensing their burning suspicion in the air. They began to circle her, like a school of hungry, bloodthirsty sharks.

"...who are you...?" one of them began.

Izetta's skin was clammy, and her fingers threatened to slip off the rifle in her anxiety.

As dangerous as these witches were, they were not so different from Izetta. Driven by anger, hopelessness, and revenge, they flocked to the nearest beacon they could find. They were just looking for a way to retrieve their sense of worth...the honor of their tribe...and the closest thing they could have to a family.

Izetta was lucky to have Sophie and the White Witches with her.

She had probably joined the Anathemas if she didn't.

They might be at odds now, and she was undecided in how much she should keep sensitive information about her to herself, but she wanted to at least reason with them.

"...a few months ago, my tribe was purged by the Archduke of Eylstadt," she replied, "I was the only survivor. And I need you to listen to me."

There was no doubt they would kill her outright if she knew where she stood, but because Izetta was a witch, they all held back.

"You must stop all this. Murdering these humans would accomplish nothing. If the Archduke comes after you with his stone, then your resistance would end unceremoniously."

One of the Anathemas immediately reacted with rage, obviously not taking kindly to Izetta's words. "You're a rogue witch...!"

"Halt. She's trying to be sensible," her friend raised her arm at her, "Putting aside how you can survive this far, you are not one of us. You don't understand our ways, like those other witches. Once we get rid of humans and take over this world, you all would come begging to us on your knees. You should keep out of here, and hide like the rest of those cowardly witches."

"I'm not hiding," Izetta said boldly, "I want to help you guys, but not in this way. Outside of life-threatening situations, witches shall never resort to violence. That is why we are given the gift of magic. There is a way to retrieve the stone so that no more blood would need to be shed! Those humans believe me, and I can get that stone for you."

None of the Anathemas seemed to be impressed by her words.

"If you are not hiding then why are you wearing a mask...? You should learn to keep to yourself and stay out of our way," she replied coldly, "Besides, these are the wishes of our saviors. If we follow their orders, we will win the war."

"And you believe them, just like that?"

"Whether we believe them or not is irrelevant. The Anathemas' way is to follow our glorious leaders. They will do us no wrong, and witches would never be kept under by humans anymore. Once we are finished, it would mean the end of human civilization as we know it, and you and the other witches shall be in at the kill."

Izetta bit her lip.

It was useless talking to these people.

"...In short, you are just mindless drones. You are blindly following orders you do not understand. What, would they kill you if you disobey them...?"

Out of the blue, a chilly atmosphere instantly swept through the air, causing her hair to stand on end.

The hooded witches flew closer, eerily chanting together to her like a chorus of hissing poisonous snakes, with perfectly synchronous breathing, and their eyes soon became empty, as if drained of life.

"Yes..."

"Yes..."

"Yes..."

"...Do us no wrong...We obey them and live...disobey them and die..."

"...Glory to The Magus...the almighty and eternal...our being took form in defiance...to stand before your blazes and flames..."

"...To stand armed and die for your cause…in the bloody fields of history...in order to immolate this world tainted by humans..."

"...slay all the evils, alongside the traitors...burn their bodies in your fire...and tower from their ashes to your glory!"

"And let them all scream that we are here, as Masters...Among the failing species called Man...!"

"Glory to The Magus...! Glory to The Magus...!"

Those chants words rang inside Izetta's ears when they all simultaneously raised their arms to the sky and Izetta suddenly came under a barrage of various oversized projectiles.

Being outnumbered at least ten to one, with a sharp intake of breath Izetta escaped them by making a dive into the depths of the ravine, nearly missing the train tracks. The hooded witches didn't, though, and in an instant the tracks, the whole steel and wooden structure, collapsed under their direct heavy bombardment with a roaring crash. Not wanting to think about what would happen if she was the one who got hit, Izetta flattened her back, keeping her head as close as she could to the rifle barrel as she rocketed along the train tracks, zig-zagging roughly to dodge the assault of the floating boulders and pine trees. Flying in her top speed while evading obstacles was nothing new to her. She baited the Anathemas to follow her toward the train, which was now going slower than before thanks to Sophie's efforts.

Then she realized some of them were getting shot down as they flew. Izetta was not their only enemy, the soldiers and royal guards were still shooting at them from the train.

"Die for the Magus, rogue witch! !"

The hostile Anathema from before was the closest to her, and she was far bigger than Izetta with her hands covered in scars. Izetta wondered if the Archduke caused that, and all this hate, but she didn't have time to pity the enemy. Tilting her rifle upwards, she and the gun shot up to the sky, passing right next to the moving cargo car where the rifle was stored earlier. She threw a really quick glance over her shoulder and counted six hounding witches.

"I can't reason with you!" Izetta shouted over the whistling winds and the rumbling sounds of the train, "Forgive me, for I have to stop you no matter what...!"

The doors of the cargo car flew open and ten dark gray shells darted out of it. The highly explosive projectiles followed after Izetta in two straight lines, immediately catching all of the Anathemas' attention.

"More human weapons? Don't tell me...you...!" the hooded witch roared, "You can control that many, at once! ?"

But Izetta wasn't listening.

These can definitely do what handguns can't...!

Her magical energy was more divided now that she was controlling ten items, but she knew these ammunitions held much more destructive power than her bullets. Shells were still vulnerable though, and if the Anathemas fortified their weapons with defensive magic like the one Izetta fought earlier, she would lose. One more reason for her to fight as fast as possible.

"Now, go...!"

The shells instantly obeyed her command, dispersing to individually chase their respective closest targets. The hooded witches were visibly taken aback, and they quickly scattered to escape from the sudden attack. Izetta couldn't possibly keep up with so many Anathemas, and most of them were as swift as she was, so she used several shells to scare them and aimed for the easier targets: those huge projectiles they wanted to use to pulverize the train. The shells hit the huge stone slabs and they went off in a blinding flash followed by an ear-splitting blast. The magically amplified explosives shattered the rocks into smaller pieces, and the shockwaves sent them flying to all directions, mercilessly striking everything they could reach. One of them smashed a witch's face so hard Izetta could see bits of her skull dropping into the ravine. The rest of the sharp rough stones lodged themselves in various body parts and organs of the Anathemas' body, and the witch who was too close to the detonation was knocked into the gorge and caught on fire, piercing the cold morning air with the stinging smell of iron and burnt flesh, and shrieks of agony that were more shrill than anything Izetta ever heard. Then some shells missed their targets and blew up the cliffs on the side, burying a few witches under the massive landslides.

Izetta herself was covered in cuts and bruises when she flew away from the scene to keep close to the train, looking for signs of the Princess as she felt the burning heat on her skin from the smoke and debris that filled the air. Terror dominated her mind like thunderclaps in her head.

What have I done...?

What have I...

But more enraged witches were already coming her way, ready to make her pay for the deaths of their friends.

She couldn't stop even when she was already knee-deep in blood.

And truthfully, her plan worked, because she drew all of their attention to her.

But she thought she could accomplish it with a few injuries and not...this.

She had to finish this as fast as she could...she didn't know how much longer she could last, and the train was still moving against Sophie's magic.

Darn it...which one of them is controlling the train...? And where is the Princess...?

"You murderer...! !"

The witch with the scarred hands were still alive, and Izetta barely missed some sharp stones being hurled her way. She gasped out in pain when one of them gashed her right arm to leave a deep gaping wound beneath the coat, tearing through a tendon. Her grasp on the rifle immediately weakened, and the Anathema noticed this.

"It hurts, isn't it...? Just like what Eylstadt did to our tribes. You are a witch like us...and yet...why can't you understand us...?" she muttered, following Izetta closely, "Humans don't deserve to live. They are a filthy species who have destroyed so much of our Earth, killed so many of our beloved sisters. And you are helping them doing just that...!"

"I'm not! I don't want any of this to happen!" Izetta cried, trying to fight back the blinding pain on her arm as blood was dripping down the rifle, "But humans...if we take some time to understand them, they are not as bad as you think they are!"

They flew over the train, but the Anathema was too focused on Izetta to attack it anymore. And her swiftness was incredible, she was probably the only one who could fully keep up and exceed Izetta in speed.

"Understand them...? After everything they did to us? After they took away your tribe? Between us two, you are the insane one."

"We should stop having this knee-jerk reaction to anything related to humans! They are a part of a system and culture, that is broken, ignorant, and designed to treat witches as the enemy. Both you and them are thinking they are doing the right thing! We cannot fight fire with fire! There is a peaceful way we can take!"

"Hating on and exerting power over those weaker than them is human nature!"

"It is true that there are humans like that, but there are good humans too. A lot of them don't think in that way! There's just so little foundation of understanding between us and them, because we have been isolating ourselves from them for hundreds of years!"

"You have mingled so much with them, you have been brainwashed. I don't think you can call yourself a witch anymore, trying this hard to protect the lives of filthy humans..." she said, "This is all the von Eylstadts' doing, isn't it...?"

Izetta didn't reply immediately, convincing the Anathema of the truth.

"I knew it...they are the roots of all evil..."

"The Princess is not that kind of person. There has to be a reason that she let all this happen!"

"Oh yeah? You're a witch, but why does it look like that you're overly fond of her...?" she said, "Do you think that if you woo her enough, the stone will be yours for keeps...? A close relationship between a witch and a human is the cause of this whole disaster...! Both you and your Princess must die, for the survival of witches and glory of the Magus...!"

Izetta whirled upwards, dodging the huge sharp stones and burning tree trunks that mercilessly went after her. However, before she could call forth her last remaining shell to attack the Anathema, she heard a voice from the gap between the beaten up train car nearby that almost made her heart stop. Izetta recognized it as the coach where they were all sitting in the night before.

"Bianca, over here...! I think this is it...!"

It was Finé's voice, loud enough for the hooded witch to hear, and from the wide grin that appeared on her face and the burning pine trees over her head, Izetta knew they could only spell trouble.

No...

No...

Princess is inside...

Don't you dare...

"Don't you dare hurt her...!" Izetta screamed, but it was too late.

The Anathema was quick and there wasn't much time for Izetta to retaliate, the burning trees were about to pierce the car where the Princess was in right when Izetta's shell finally came, and this time she didn't have a chance to fly away. The shell exploded on impact, and Izetta received a faceful of the shockwave that threw the rifle and her body head first toward the top of the moving car. After that rough landing that tossed her off her rifle, her mask broke and her lambswool coat caught fire, which she quickly got rid of before she suffered serious burns.

The Anathema floated over her and examined her bloodied appearance for the first time.

"Scarlet hair..." she breathed.

Clutching her injured arm, Izetta sat up and shot her a glare. Her rifle was lying inches away from her feet, and there were pieces of burning wood all around her. She heard a lot of ruckus from underneath, mainly voices of the royal guards. She quickly evaluated her situation.

Darn it...I run out of...wait... she thought, her eyes falling on her rifle, There is still...one more shell I can use.

"How can this be...? Your story about being the last of your clan is not a complete lie after all. And yet you suffer this much for a human princess...?" she said, "Why do you go this far? What is that princess to you...?"

"...you don't want to know...!"

Izetta leapt to her feet, grabbing her rifle and positioning it over the train car. It was so big and heavy she wouldn't be able to do it without magic, but this was the only chance she got. Charging the gun with every bit of power that she had left, she quickly pulled the bolt to load the rifle and then the trigger with both hands. An anti-tank shell burst out of the muzzle covered in spiraling magical energy, and it went in a straight line before bending its path upwards toward the flying Anathema.

Izetta couldn't even bring herself to look up, she only ordered the shell to follow the hooded witch whenever she went, only so she would stay away from the Princess's car.

Once she heard the ensuing explosion a few seconds later, she slumped over her rifle, wishing that this was all over already.

She was so exhausted and scarred emotionally, she knew all the crimes she did to her fellow witches would keep her up for countless nights to come.

But she was yet to be given a chance to rest.

Izetta heard a loud furious scream and less a second later she was violently knocked down on her back, fingers covered in scars firmly wrapping themselves around her neck.

The Anathema from earlier, with her hood drawn and her cheek disfigured by fresh burns, was pinning Izetta on the ground with her knobby knees painfully pressing against Izetta's stomach. With pure hate etched in every crease of her face, her vice-like grip around Izetta's windpipe became tighter by the second and Izetta's breath was stopped. Izetta fought back instinctively, digging her nails into the Anathema's skin, and in their struggle the rifle was knocked sideways and fell of the train car. However, the Anathema's grip was unyielding. As Izetta's lungs began to burn from lack of air, she began to see dark spots across her vision. Physically she was stronger than the Anathema, but Izetta was simply much smaller than her and didn't have much physical power left. Then she saw something hovering over them: prominent red-hot cubes piling themselves into a Hexenium.

Am I...going to die here...?

After everything...that I've done...

And I haven't reached my goal...

Would this all be in vain...?

Is it useless to fight back after all...?

She felt herself weakening and her arms slowly went limp, but the growth of the Hexenium was not getting any slower.

If she was really going to see her parents and grandmother soon, this was not the way she imagined it to be.

There was still so much she wanted to do in life, so much she wanted to see.

And at the very least...she wanted to see the Princess's smile, and hear her clear distinct voice, for one last time.

However, just when her consciousness was slipping away from her grasp, that wish was granted.

Even with her mind slowly blacking out, she still recognized that unmistakable voice.

"Get your hands off her this instant...!"

Through her gasps of breath and darkened gaze, Izetta saw Finé's figure appearing on top of the train car, her expression brimming with silent rage as she held up a shining bluish purple stone between her thumb and forefinger. It bathed them in strange crimson light that spread to their vicinity.

The effect was immediate, and violent. Izetta felt like her soul was being forcefully ripped apart from her body. It was not painful, but it was extremely unpleasant, and having your magic being sucked out of your body, however temporary, was a horrifying experience that shook her emotionally.

The Hexenium on the sky immediately vanished in a wisp of red smoke.

Before the Anathema had any chance to flee, when her grip around Izetta's neck loosened in her shock, Izetta's royal guard instincts kicked in and she used that one and only chance to jab her knee as into the Anathema's stomach. Howling in pain, she withdrew her hands from Izetta, but not before Izetta kicked her as hard as she could to the side, hoping that she could break a rib or at least incapacitate her. However, she underestimated the power of her leg, which had been strengthened by her royal guard training. The huge Anathema tumbled to the edge of the car, before Izetta gave one final kick with her other foot that finally pushed her off the train and into the deep ravine.

Izetta wouldn't be able to forget the last things she saw of her: those piercing emerald green eyes, and the intense grudge they contained within.

It chilled Izetta to the core.

However, just as she stood up and her legs finally stopped shaking, and she began to recover her breathing, it was taken away again by a heartfelt hug that obscured her vision with waves of long flaxen hair.

"Izetta, you're alive...!" she felt the Princess's hand buried in her messy red strands, "Thank goodness, you're alive..."

The fact that Finé paid no heed to the blood and sweat that covered her whole body, warmed Izetta up in an instant. The embrace filled her nose with the smell of lavender, and when Izetta noticed that the Princess was crying, she really wanted to circle her arms around that slender back.

However, before she could do it, she realized they were wobbling, and the train was moving in much higher speed than before.

Izetta's heart dropped.

The stone was wiping away all the magic, including the one controlling the train's, and Sophie's. They were running on the train staff's fast setting, before the Anathemas attacked.

Right on cue, the white witch appeared on top of the train several cars away from them, no longer wearing her disguise and was now leaping swiftly from car to car toward them like her broken arm didn't affect her in any way. Around the same time, the other royal guards were climbing up the train car.

"Izetta...! Chasm incoming...!" Sophie shouted frantically, "We have to jump...! Now...!"

"But...!" Izetta looked at the depths of the ravine below.

"Just hold on to a tree or something! Better than falling into that bottomless chasm, because if we fall with the train into that thing there's no way we can get out!"

There was not enough time to think.

Wrapping her arm around the Princess's waist, she quickly said to her, "Hold on tight!"

Finé managed a surprised nod and clung to Izetta as hard as she could. Izetta threw a quick glance below and saw pretty dense foliage that could probably cushion their fall. Hoping with all her might that she still had enough strength to carry the Princess, she made a long jump toward the foliage, followed by Sophie and the other royal guards.

The landing was rough, adding more cuts and bruises to Izetta's already bloodied and battered body, but she shielded Finé from the impact as much as she possibly could. Once it was all over and they found a steady position on a tree branch, they heard the cracking sounds of the train going off the rails and plummeted straight into the chasm, leaving only silence behind. Sophie was right, there was not even a bang or a crash, the chasm was so deep it swallowed the train completely and it was gone forever.

The ensuing stillness was a bit too quiet, a bit too...disconcerting after all the ruckus and gunshots and screams.

There was no Anathema in sight, they probably fled when they found out that the Princess brought the stone with her.

Bits and pieces of that day's events flashed inside Izetta's mind.

Everything she did...it was all for the greater good...all in self-defense...

...but ultimately...

The safety of this person in her arms brought her the most relief of all.

"Thank you, Izetta..."

As Finé buried her face in Izetta's shoulder, never letting go, the witch couldn't help but lean her cheek against the blonde's forehead.

Finé might not know the true extent of Izetta's fight, but her gratitude sounded like the sweetest music in her injured ear.

"I'm so glad you're safe, Princess..." she whispered, before peacefully closing her eyes.

Chapter Text

After the attack, Princess Finé's visit to Westria was cancelled and everyone was sent back to Landsbruck. Rescuing them and investigating the pieces of wreckage that was left after the attack was a labor-intensive process, especially because of their difficult location and the fact that some of them, like Sophie and Izetta, fell unconscious after a while. However, most of the train fell into the bottomless chasm and could not be retrieved.

Izetta's whole body was completely sore for weeks afterward.

A witch generally healed faster than humans, as long as they stayed in an area where they could continue absorbing magic from ley lines to speed up their recovery. However, Izetta still spent several days in the hospital ward because of her wounds and a few cracked bones. It was a pretty lakeside hospital and Izetta got a really great view from her room, but her stay was still far from a pleasant experience. The gash on her arm required at least ten stitches, not including the deeper ones, but she still tolerated it better than getting actual stitches for the wound on her face. It was a horrifying experience she'd rather never repeat again for the rest of her life. But in the end, she was still left with a thin scar that ran from her right eyebrow to the bridge of her nose. Sophie kept teasing her that her eyebrow would never be the same. Not that the white witch got it any easier herself, though. When she and Izetta stayed in the same ward, Izetta felt like the injury to her hearing was getting worse because Sophie kept screaming when the nurse brought a syringe to her, which was the first time she saw a syringe in her life. Then it turned out Sophie's broken arm was far worse than they initially thought, forcing her to spend quite a long time in the hospital. Sophie was unexpectedly calm about it, her only complaint being it might take her forever now to lace up her shoes. She had always hated human shoes. And Izetta knew Sophie was the type who would use her condition to knock off work early anyway.

"I'd suspect something of the kind," Sophie said, after the doctor revealed the true extent of her injuries. "When I could see the chasm in the horizon, some of them did notice me by the end and tried to attack me. I ran to the train cars in the back and met with you guys. I guess something got messed up in my arm amidst all that chaos. By the time we were saved by the local authorities, the pain had already made me pass out upside down on a tree."

"Yeah, you were really delighted to wake up in the hospital," Izetta said from her bed.

"So delighted I'm screaming and kicking like a baby!"

"But unlike a baby, you really kicked them square in the face."

"They were trying to stab me with those weird needles! !"

"...it looks like you're just scared of them."

"I'm not scared...!" Sophie retorted, "That's it, I've had enough of conversing with my annoying roommate. I'm going out for a snack."

"Sophie! The doctor told you not to move too much."

"Do I look like someone who listens to a dog turd?"

"A doc-tor."

"Whatever," she scoffed, getting off her bed and stomping her way to the door, dragging her IV pole with her healthy hand, "I'll just go to the lobby and watch some kitchen-sink drama and wish my life were more like that, instead of suffering a broken arm for my good-for-nothing best friend."

That stung.

Izetta knew that Sophie tended to say things without thinking, especially in times like now when she was much crankier than usual because of the nauseating doses of painkillers she was enduring, but it still hurt.

"Sophie..." She tried calling out to her, thinking that they should at least talk it over, but Sophie shot her a glare as she opened the door.

"It's not your fault," the white witch said, "It's not your fault...but I'm just so...goddamn angry. I think I need some time alone..."

She didn't look back anymore when she walked out of the room and muttered, "I hope this all pays off in the end..." before closing the door behind her.

The silence that she left in her wake was louder than her voice, pounding mercilessly on Izetta's recovering eardrums.

Sophie knew, without a doubt, that Izetta would never dump any of her problems in her lap if she could, and even if Izetta was tied up, beaten, and threatened at knifepoint, she would never betray Sophie or her clan in any way. She would choose death over ratting her out, giving Sophie a chance to flee safely. But that was probably why Sophie was so frustrated about her. The white witch didn't have that kind of willpower. The only reason she was there was that because Izetta decided to. Unlike Izetta, Sophie still had a tribe, a family, and a future to look forward to. She never showed it, but she was probably worried sick of the possibility that she would never come back home. She understood Izetta's wishes and goals, and she also shared them with Izetta at some point, but if her best friend didn't choose to live with humans, Sophie would definitely go into hiding with the rest of the white witches. She didn't lack the courage to stand up and fight, but she just had too much at stake to be as bold as Izetta was. If all this was in vain, then she would have risked her life for nothing.

It was not that all this never crossed Izetta's conscience. She had nightmares and flashbacks to her fight with the Anathemas that day, and watching Sophie or Finé dying was a common occurrence in those dreams. She never really told Sophie about it, but the white witch probably knew. Sometimes it didn't look like she was sleeping soundly when Izetta was woken up by her nigtmares.

Izetta was still musing on how to make up with Sophie later when suddenly heard a voice outside her door.

"...You girls can go ahead without me. I'll catch up with you later."

"Yes, Princess. We'll wait for you in the lobby."

She heard some footsteps shuffling away from the room and a few seconds later there was a polite knock on the door.

Already feeling her heart rate speeding up, Izetta croaked out, "Come in," and the blond Princess sheepishly entered.

There were many fresh cuts and bruises on her hands and face, but it didn't seem like she suffered from any other injuries. Izetta did hear that Finé got several stitches on her head, so it was still wrapped with a bandage that looped around her forehead. Izetta realized she still got a bandage on her own face, making her slightly self-conscious. She wished she could hide the dark circles under her eyes. She had been having way too many late nights, thanks to her fear of having another bad dream if she slept.

But the Princess didn't comment on her appearance.

"Izetta...how are you doing...?" she asked, sitting next to Izetta's bed, "How's your arm?"

Even after everything that happened, Finé's smile was still the only thing that could calm her down in the blink of an eye.

"It's getting better, thank you, Princess," she said, "I...didn't expect you would come..."

"I was getting my wounds checked earlier so I figured that I should pay you a visit," she replied cheerfully, "Where's Sophie?"

"She...um...we..." Izetta tried to find some words that could describe it, but the closest she could come up with was, "We have a fight..."

"Oh..." Finé said, "...I...never really see the two of you fight before."

Some people might find that strange, but truthfully Izetta got along with Sophie so naturally that they hardly ever had big problematic arguments.

So it felt strange for Izetta when Sophie was avoiding her like this.

Still, she didn't want to show her disappointment to the Princess, but it seemed like she couldn't hide it all that well.

"It's alright, we'll...get over it eventually."

"I'm sorry that you have to go through all this because of me..."

"Princess, it's my job to get hurt for you, you know."

The Princess let out a giggle, and it surprised Izetta a little how easily she could talk with Finé again... although the awkwardness from their last conversation that night still hung vaguely in the air.

After exchanging some light-hearted banter, Finé's expression became much more serious than before.

"...we could only retrieve a few bodies," she said, "This is probably their first attack, no witches were known to the police before. Some of them died of...really peculiar injuries. Our anti-tank rifle was found not far from the chasm, and there were traces of our shells being detonated around the tracks. Don't you find that strange? Nobody aside from our people knew we were bringing them, and why would witches who were so anti-human have any use of weapons like that...? And the day before the last, one of our soldiers told us they saw a witch flying on the rifle...fighting against the Anathemas..."

Izetta's heart was banging painfully against her ribcage.

She felt like she was going to die when Finé said to her in a weirdly cheery tone, "It's a mystery, isn't it...?"

She could sense Finé observing her reactions. She didn't know why the Princess was doing it, but she quipped with the only thing she could think of. "Maybe they just wanted to get rid of whatever we were carrying, and ran into those weapons by accident? And they figured it would be better to destroy them too," she said calmly, "And about that one witch...I have no idea...maybe some of them just...disagree with the Anathemas...? Or maybe that one soldier was just dreaming..."

"That is also what I think."

Izetta was secretly relieved.

If Finé suspected Izetta was an accomplice of the witch now when she and Sophie were not exactly in good terms, it would definitely spell trouble for them.

However, when Finé spoke again, her tone of voice was somehow much sadder than before. Her hand reached out to Izetta and softly touched the white bandage on her face.

"...Even if it were true, one witch fighting back doesn't change the fact that so many of us are killed and injured. After everything that those witches have done to us...after all the misery that they brought...after all those injuries they inflicted on you...do you still think that it is wrong to dispose of them...?" she asked with a bitter smile.

Izetta recognized that expression.

It was the same expression Finé had when she decided to sacrifice her life for the train personnel.

The expression where she had to make a difficult decision, but ultimately choose the option that she thought was best for her people.

Clutching on her blanket, Izetta remembered how she insisted to the Anathema that Finé was not a cruel ruler who exerted her power over others.

She was willing to give her life to her people, to those who were weaker and depended on her.

The Anathemas' attack was a self-fulfilling prophecy of the prejudice and deep-rooted belief that had been accusing witches of the disaster and tragedy that happened in the nation. And now that they had openly attempted to kill the Princess, it was impossible to turn the public opinion to their side. Finé knew she could not let the Anathemas endanger her people like they did with the train, although their actions were the result of the Archduke's massacre, and there were no signs of either side stopping any time soon. Witches severely punished their own kind who meddled with the human world, pushing the Anathemas into hiding. However, this seemed to be relatively unknown to the humans, which would explain why they thought the "evil witches" were uncontrolled and could get away scot-free. Witches also isolated themselves from humans, fueling more misunderstanding that they hated the humans.

Was there really a way out of this mess...?

She didn't know how open the Princess was to accepting her views, but she had been nothing but supportive and kind to Izetta, if only because she had no idea that she was a witch.

But Izetta's stance on this matter had always been loud and clear.

"...I still think they don't deserve to be purged," she told her.

"But it has to be done for the people."

Izetta stared at her, wondering just how far they could justify killing all the witches in the world.

"I'm just...confused," she said, "If an Eylstadtian kills a person, would you punish their entire family? And is it fair to easily blame all your misfortune on a group of people, then slay them indiscriminately? Or label living, breathing people sinners and heretics just because you believe them to be so, and condemn them to inhumane, brutal torture? Is that what a leader is supposed to do...? I am sorry, Princess...but there is just...something wrong with that. I know you are trying to do the right thing...but there...there has to be another way. These Anathemas don't represent the witches' way of living."

She never thought she would ever talk about this with the Princess of Eylstadt herself, daughter of the monster who was the enemy of all the witches in the world.

She hoped with all her might that the Princess was different, not only because Izetta wanted to save her kind, but also because she believed Finé was a genuinely good person.

"The Princess would listen" was what the royal guards said, wasn't it...?

There had to be some truth in there...

But Finé's eyes had hardened before Izetta finished thinking.

"...we have to make sacrifices," she said.

The disappointment that hit Izetta was more painful than anything she had ever felt.

"Prin..."

"No more. No more people shall suffer because of them. No more people shall mourn because of them. No more of my soldiers shall be injured and die because of them. No more children shall spend their days crying because those people take away their mot-!"

Her words were cut short when she quickly covered her hand over her mouth.

Izetta could see it, the slight shake of her shoulders, the uncertainty in her gaze. The Princess, no matter how kind she was, was still raised by her father. The sudden death of the former Archduchess, her mother, probably shook her up enough to believe in her father's ways. Izetta knew how it felt. When her grandmother and tribe were killed, she wanted to do something, anything, to avenge them and unleash her anger and hatred. It was only recently that she realized it might not be the right way.

And that was not all.

Izetta didn't know what truly happened with Finé's mother, or whether it happened to anybody else, or whether the witches were really guilty of this or not. But she probably heard the cries of many other people who suffered the same thing. They were just looking for someone to blame, to make everything clear-cut and to make it there was something they could do in their miserable life or for their lost loved ones. Combine it with the long-held prejudice and fear of the unknown, and you got a recipe for a disaster. The Archduke merely provided them with answers.

And Finé was still...Finé. Always trying to understand, always putting others' needs over her own.

"I am sorry... I shouldn't be saying that," she said, shaking her head, "...witches...although they are the enemy of Eylstadt...as a ruler I am supposed to learn more about them...and listen to their side of the story..."

She took a deep breath and spoke again with a much calmer voice, "Izetta, how much do you know about witches?"

"Eh? Me?" she exclaimed.

"Yes, you seem to know more about them than I do."

"Oh...yeah..."

"Do you happen to know a witch yourself?"

Actually, I am that witch.

But of course she could never tell Finé that. She decided to go along with what the Princess said.

"...yes...I...uh...have an interest in witches. I like learning and...researching about them...uh...does that make sense?" she stammered, wondering if she was convincing enough.

Finé nodded at her and replied, "That's good. Can I ask you some questions...?"

"Yeah...sure..."

Izetta didn't know what she was expecting, but the conversation they had for the next several minutes felt so bizarre.

The Princess questioned her about pretty mundane and strange things, like how witches lived and ate, what kinds of tools they used, and what kind of cultures and habits they practiced. Izetta tried to be as honest as possible with her, although she refused to reveal sensitive information, such as their location. However, Finé never pushed her to answer everything. Even when Izetta couldn't give anything other than "I am sorry, I can't tell you that", the Princess only nodded and asked something else without missing a beat. It surprised Izetta that it was the little things that Finé found fascinating...such as how witches liked to lace almost everything they drank with rum, how they had a rich, long history like humans where they lapsed from several ancient religions and left a number of dead languages, and how they lagged far behind humans in using modern technology, but made up with it with magic. Izetta also emphasized how witches were peace-loving people, and the Anathemas didn't represent their community as a whole.

It was certainly the most peculiar exchange she ever had with a human, and yet, by and large it felt...so...normal and laid-back. Maybe it was because this was Finé she was chatting with. It never ceased to amaze her how much she loved talking with Finé, how easy it was to let her guard down around the Princess.

"Does that mean they don't have any labor-saving devices, such as washing machines, since magic makes everything easier?"

"Well, magic does make everything easier, but it needs objects to work. They still depend on simple tools, and potions."

"Do they have pets?"

"No...?"

"Not even cats?"

"Why cats- ...um...is that a stereotype..."

"So they don't keep cats...?"

"...no."

"But they ride on brooms."

Izetta didn't get why that seemed to confuse the Princess. Did humans stereotype witches that much?

"Maybe it's just the occasional lost ones. I know a witch who owned a labrador puppy which had been abandoned by someone."

"A puppy? That's cute…so they also keep pets like that. I used to have a puppy."

"You did?"

"Yup, she was adorable and really liked playing with me. She always protected me and kept me company, she was my closest friend..." she explained, "You kind of reminded me of her."

Izetta blinked a few times. "I remind you of..."

"...my puppy, yes."

"I am a...human, though."

The witch felt so confused. Why did she remind the Princess of a puppy? Was it a human thing? Sometimes she came across a concept that was difficult to grasp because of her unfamiliarity with the terms they used, but she could usually latch on after awhile.

Finé laughed at her perplexity. "It's just your traits, Izetta. I mean...you are so cute, kind, and loyal, like a puppy...and yet...so fierce and strong, like a wolf. You are...a truly interesting person."

Izetta didn't quite understand, but she knew from the long, lingering gaze the Princess held on her that it was a compliment.

Compliment...? she thought, as her eyes locked with those intense purple orbs and she could no longer look away, It sounds...much more than a compliment...

Izetta could see her reflection swimming in those mesmerizing lavender seas inside the Princess's pupils. Her red unruly hair, the wounds on her face, the bandage on her forehead...Izetta saw a young witch staring back at her. A witch who had lost her whole family to the father of this woman in front of her. A witch who had to live with the horrors of being hunted like prey animals, all because of the belief of this Princess and her family.

A witch who was supposed to hate this person to the core, join the Anathema and watch them rip her to shreds.

A witch who should never...not even in a thousand years...

...have any sort of feelings for the Princess.

"Izetta..."

But when she heard her name forming in those lips, still as fitting and perfect as it was when Finé first called her name, every rational part of Izetta's brain immediately shut down, except for one...the only reason she could think of to explain why she just sat there, unmoving, as the Princess slowly rose and put a knee on the bed, leaning forward to her.

To steal Finé's heart was also a part of her mission. She should let her do whatever she wanted and see what happened.

However, even without that thought, Izetta would still be unable to move a muscle. It should make Izetta jump or flinch or whatever it is normal people do when a woman's beautiful face was inches away from hers, but she didn't. It was like everything around her just vanished, and there was only her and this blonde in front of her, who was watching her so intensely that Izetta could no longer breathe. When Finé's hand drifted to rest on Izetta's cheek, the witch closed her eyes, and the Princess erased the remaining distance between them.

The second Finé's lips touched hers, it felt like the only thing that was right in this world.

The Princess's hand was warm and solid against her skin, and Izetta thought her body was going to tense without permission, but instead, the radiating heat and intoxicating scent of the lavender flower in front of her simply made it the most blissful and calming thing she ever experienced. It was as if she had wanted this to happen, as if she was desperate for this to happen. As Finé's touch swept her mind like a tidal wave, the witch allowed the kiss went where it wanted to, chastely moving back and forth from upper lip and lower lip, lazily chasing itself across the bows of mouths into corners, touches as light as sound, as sighs, as smooth and easy as all of that.

Because nothing could explain why in that very moment, Izetta didn't spend even one second to think about how she was a witch, and Finé was a human.

She might have captured the Princess's heart...

But in return... the Princess had also captured hers.

Several weeks later, Princess Finé proposed once again to make Izetta her personal guard.

Bianca and the other royal guards, having seen Izetta's dedication and services on the train, agreed without a single objection.

Izetta accepted the offer, and she was told that she would be inducted in a few days time by the Archduke of Eylstadt himself.

Chapter Text

After contemplating it for a while, Izetta decided that the best way to make up with Sophie was to send her away.

Izetta never expected Sophie to come with her to begin with, but it was true that she would be long dead without the white witch around.

Still, she had to respect Sophie's wishes more than anything.

When Sophie didn't get back to her room even after the Princess left, Izetta wandered down to the lobby to look for her. After dodging human visitors and some curious-looking nurses, she finally found her friend, sitting alone in the lobby with her eyes fixed on the TV and her mouth munching on potato chips, her IV pole standing right beside her. Izetta awkwardly occupied the seat next to her, and they watched the TV in complete silence, with Sophie showing no signs that she noticed Izetta was there. The TV was showing a sports match and for the life of her Izetta couldn't remember what it was called, but she kept watching with her for several minutes.

Sophie was the first to break the silence between them.

"...If Brittania loses this, they'll be knocked out of the World Cup," she said absent-mindedly, as if nothing happened between them earlier.

Izetta glanced at her for a second. In times like these, it was better to go along with what Sophie wanted to talk about.

"You like watching this?" Izetta asked. She still didn't understand why humans loved watching other humans kicking a single ball around.

"It's interesting."

"It looks...boring."

"But it's simple," Sophie said, her eyes fixated on the screen, "It has clear rules and goals. And none of the bullshit of an insane suicidal mission."

Izetta gazed at her, but Sophie hadn't looked at her even once the whole time she was there.

It felt like there were so many things Izetta wanted to say, most of all "thank you for sticking up with me" and "sorry for getting you involved in this mess", but all she could manage was...

"...you can leave now."

Sophie didn't reply her for awhile. They followed several men on the TV passing the ball back and forth in silence.

"You've done enough. You can leave," Izetta repeated, "Your family must be worried about you."

"...I've broken my arm for you, and this is how you react...?"

Izetta was aware, that Sophie was far too kind, and far too stubborn, to accept her offer.

She had to make Sophie angry and hate her. She couldn't think of anything else.

"And how do you think I'm supposed to react, Sophie? You should not be here. It's always been that way since the beginning."

"Izetta, I'm not a baby. I already know right from wrong, and the wrong thing to do is leaving my best friend to die in this human shithole."

"No, the wrong thing is sticking with your idiot best friend instead of your family."

"That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

Izetta's hands clenched into fists on her lap.

What must she do to convince Sophie...?

"You never change, Izetta. Stupid, insensitive. Even as a witch you were found lacking, and your ability to enchant many objects at once is just useless if you don't have enough focus to control them properly. And you did end up causing unnecessary damage."

Izetta knew that since the beginning. Although her magic was more powerful than witches her age, her ability to control it was simply lackluster. Her grandmother had criticized her for it, and warned her against using her magic excessively in fear of causing harm to others. There were times she felt like she was born with something grand that was beyond her control.

"You're annoying, hard-headed, reckless, and way too idealistic for your own good. I can't believe I'm friends with you."

Izetta swallowed whatever Sophie said, and waited.

If it was just some insults and foul language, she could bear it for the sake of pushing her friend to go home…

"...but..." Sophie went on,"...I can't believe you are friends with me either."

She put another chip in her mouth, keeping her eyes on the screen and obviously avoiding Izetta's gaze.

"...everyone in my tribe thinks I am a nuisance," she said, "They're all a bunch of stuck-up hags. They forced me to be prim and proper, elegant and all that, since I am a White Witch. It always feels like bullshit for me, and I know they still think of me as family, but they said I was wrong for being different. And then I met you, a girl who was lauded as one of the strongest witches in her generation but took twice as long as anyone to learn to control her magic. And this lamebrain little redhead is the only person who doesn't mind being around the utterly unbearable, insufferable White Witch, who thinks she's actually larger than life, and the only one who's willing to stick with her for years and years afterward. You never told me, but I know you begged your grandma to take me in when I ran away from home that one time."

She stood up and licked her salt-covered thumb without a care in the world.

"You have to try harder than that to get rid of me, sweetheart," she said boldly, as if it was a challenge, before disappearing into the ladies' room in the corner with her IV pole.

Izetta continued sitting in the lobby, wondering just how many more lives she was going to put on stake.

And how, after everything Sophie was willing to get herself into for Izetta's sake, Izetta still didn't have the courage to discuss anything about her own feelings for Finé.

On the day Izetta was scheduled to have a meeting with the Archduke for the first time, Sophie sat her down with a reminder, "No matter how much you want to kill him, never show it."

They knew the Archduke was going to judge her, and this was a person who had slaughtered countless witches in cold blood. Even spending a short time with him would be incredibly dangerous for any witch.

She found herself being strangely nervous when the day finally came. She kept pacing around the room, causing Sophie to go out for a walk because she couldn't stand Izetta's anxiety anymore. When Izetta could finally lie down on her bed, already in her full royal guard attire, she heard a knock on her door that made her jump to her feet and frantically open the door.

Little did she know that it was not Bianca or Sophie or anyone else that she was expecting.

Princess Finé was there, waving her hand and giving her a smile that instantly dazzled Izetta's befuddled mind.

It was the same smile that she gave Izetta moments before they kissed...and just thinking of that moment was enough to send her heart into another flying frenzy.

Everything about it was supposed to be superficial. She needed to be as close as possible with the Princess, romantic interest be damned, as long as it could lead to her goal of obtaining the stone. In the beginning, she swore to herself and her fallen people that she would do anything to achieve that end. Lying, killing, risking her life and her friend's... or faking her feelings to a princess.

She would be the person Finé trusted the most. She would fulfill the Princess's every desire.

Finé was only supposed to be a tool, which Izetta would dispose of after she served her purpose.

That was what Izetta had been avoiding to think about anyway.

Because when Finé begged Bianca to make Izetta her personal guard, whenever their eyes met after that kiss, whenever their hands brushed when they walked side by side...the witch couldn't help but feel that the line she was never supposed to cross was already blurred.

She wasn't even sure of where she was standing now, especially when the Princess was dangerously close to her right in front of her room.

"I am sorry to come so suddenly, were you resting?" Finé asked.

"Oh...yeah...but that's okay, you weren't to know..." Izetta replied awkwardly, "Um...come on in...?"

Finé didn't seem to expect her invitation, but she gladly entered and immediately scanned her surroundings. It made Izetta feel so self-conscious to see the Princess examining her living quarters with great interest.

"Uh...it's a bit messy...sorry."

Finé shook her head and said, "It's pretty neat, though...!"

Izetta gave a shy grin. "Sophie hates cleaning, so I'm usually the one putting everything in order."

"That's really nice of you. And oh, you read Jafka?"

Izetta's mind went into panic when the Princess picked up a book from her desk.

The witch happened to see the book lying around one of the rooms in the palace and picked it up out of curiosity. However, Finé didn't seem to notice that the book was not Izetta's.

"I...haven't finished reading it yet, but I like the writing so far..."

"Jafka is our national treasure. It's a shame he's only been knocking out books these past few years, and they're mostly lacking in originality," Finé remarked, "What are your favorite Jafka books?"

"Uh...I...I didn't know that he wrote other books."

When they talked about something related to the human culture like this, Izetta always felt like a fool. Sure, Finé thought she was a simple country bumpkin, but for some reason Izetta...wanted the Princess to see her in a better light.

Finé seemed to find her cluelessness charming, though."My favorite is the one about two people from warring countries who fell in love with each other in spite of the language barrier, and they had to get through convoluted means to be together," she said, "The main character is a really strong and charming girl. She's a bit like you."

The Princess's chuckle left a deep blush across Izetta's cheeks.

As she was still struggling for words, Finé diverted her attention to the witch's appearance instead.

"Your tie's a little crooked, but otherwise you look great," she commented, holding out her hands to fix it with clear adoration in her eyes.

"Ah, I never really managed to do that right," Izetta mumbled, feeling more and more embarrassed the longer the Princess stayed in her room.

"Has your arm fully recovered?"

"Good as new."

"That's a relief. I can't imagine what would happen if your injury is too severe for you to continue becoming my guard."

"Well...I can just...leave?"

"I want you to stay," Finé said firmly. Her fingers wandered up Izetta's face and reached the scar on her brow. She gently rubbed the thin white line with her thumb, and her expression softened with the gesture before a quiet whisper slipped out of her mouth with a hint of apology. "I can't just send you away after you endured these wounds to protect me..."

Izetta's heart was beating so fast it hurt. She hurriedly responded before she became completely tongue-tied, "...Even if I cannot become your guard anymore, I can stay..."

"And...?"

"Maybe I can still become your...maid or...butler or something...?"

Okay, that came out of nowhere...although it would actually suit her, since she likes helping around with housekeeping. She might be able to come up with a better answer if only the Princess wasn't so close to her right now.

"Sorry, I might need to perfect my manner of speech for that, so that I won't embarrass myself in front of your guests," she added.

"I'm interested. Can you try it now?" Finé playfully asked.

"Try what?"

"That 'manner of speech' that maids and butlers do. Pretend I'm a noblewoman who just arrived to stay for the night."

Izetta tried to remember, how those people greeted the guests that came to the palace.

She cleared her throat and said with a rather formal tone, "Welcome to the royal palace. Is there anything Your Ladyship requires...?"

The Princess giggled and clapped her hands. "That's good enough...! You might have a huge reserve of latent talent, you know."

Her smile was infectious, and it made Izetta realize just how much she loved that curve on the corner of Finé's pretty lips.

Or her lips in general.

The sensation of the kiss came back to Izetta like a storm, and she could no longer focus on anything else. With her eyes fixated on Finé's mouth, Izetta slowly took a step forward, crossing that respectful boundary that the Princess never denied her from.

"Izetta...?"

Finé seemed more than comfortable letting Izetta in her personal space, even slightly leaning her forehead toward the shorter girl's.

Izetta had never initiated a kiss before, but with Finé it came as naturally to her as breathing. She made a little tilt of her head, just enough and perfect although they had only kissed once before, closed her eyes and gave her a light peck on the lips. That was what Izetta first intended anyway, but then she felt the Princess's arms around her waist and the kiss turned longer and more languorous. It was sweet and pleasant, like honey, like drops of nectar, and it made Izetta wonder if this was how lavender tasted like.

They separated after a few minutes, but went on to gaze into each other's eyes.

Izetta never really knew the Princess's true intentions.

She was royalty, she could get anything she wanted in the world. Izetta was probably someone whom Finé found fascinating, or attractive enough for her that she didn't mind kissing. Either way, Izetta needed to become Finé's most favorite person no matter what.

Even if it meant dealing with the awkwardness after every kiss...or holding back from asking how the Princess really felt about her.

Izetta noticed Finé still had her arms around her, so she lamely reminded with a touch, "Uh...it's time for me to go now...they said I shouldn't come any later than 8...i-it's not like I want us to stop but..."

"Oh, right, sorry about that."

The Princess quickly withdrew her hands and looked away, as if she just realized that she had them there. It made Izetta wish she would just put them back around her body and they could continue feeling each other's lips until the sun set. But then she realized she had just kissed the daughter of the most powerful man in the country, whom she was about to meet...and she deflated completely.

After fixing her crooked tie and disheveled uniform (thanks to their rather passionate encounter just now), Izetta walked out with the Princess to the lamp lit corridors, her heartbeat accelerating with every turn. She was already embarrassed enough that Finé took the time to pick Izetta up herself. The Princess probably liked her enough to do that or had ulterior motives, but still...

Right now Izetta had to focus on making a good impression in front of the Archduke.

The throne room is the largest of the palace's audience halls. Half of the walls were filled with pictures and paintings of the members of the royal family, with the date clearly carved below each of them. There was a framed black-and-white photo from when the Princess was still a baby, and Izetta couldn't help but swoon when she saw her chubby cheeks and big round eyes. She was carried by her mother, a young woman who bore a striking resemblance with Finé's teenage appearance. Finé had said that the Archduke saw her as a replacement of her mother, and Izetta could understand why. It almost seemed like the Princess shared no features with her father, she and her mother could easily be mistaken as twins if they were the same age. However, judging from the different shade of grey in their eyes, they didn't have the same color. Then there was a painting from when the Archduke was still a child. He was lanky and a little pale, but otherwise looked as ordinary as his cousins around him. Somehow, it was a bit unnerving for Izetta to see him more on the adorable side. After all, this was the boy who would grow up to murder countless innocent people.

The other half of its walls was lined with relief decoration and had painted plaster and brick on the upper parts. The old bas-relief depicted many images, such as one of Finé's ancestors going to war; ritualistic religious scenes; a detailed painting of the animals on the Eylstadt flag, the boar and the ram; a panel of inscriptions in an ancient language...and one certain image that stole Izetta's attention. On the stone wall near the portal, around the corner of another war relief was a clear sculpture of a woman on a broomstick.

When Izetta was still wondering why a witch would be carved into the stone walls of the Eylstadt royal palace, the Princess called Izetta to where the Archduke was sitting with his attendants. The throne was flanked with two massive golden statues of a boar and a ram standing on their hind legs. The Archduke was sitting on his throne, covered in an elaborate fur scarf and a dark green uniform with luxurious brocaded silk. He had short grayish beard and hair with salt and pepper tint, time-chiseled face and crow's feet under his eyes. Two of his fingers were crooked from an old injury, and his eyes were a clear, sparkling blue. His expression was a little weary, but otherwise strong and vigor. He looked just like any other ruler, even kind and fatherly... although underneath that was a ruthless, bloodthirsty murderer.

He stood up and opened his arms to greet them when they bowed in front of him.

"Welcome, welcome. Don't be so tense."

Izetta instinctively stood on the defensive.

She knew that voice, she heard it on the night that her grandmother died. It was calm and quiet, like a prayer, but at the same time sickly and poisonous.

While Izetta's face turned pale, she was lucky that the Archduke first directed her attention to Finé so he didn't notice the sudden change in her expression.

"Finé, my child, how are you feeling?"

"I am healthy and well. Thank you for your concern, Father."

"Have you completed your checkup?"

"The doctor said there is nothing we need to worry about. I'm completely healed."

"That's good, your health is the most important thing of all," he said, patting Finé on the head. Then he turned to Izetta and added, "My daughter always gets herself into all sorts of trouble, you see. It's like she's not aware that she's going to inherit these rich, lush lands of Eylstadt someday. That's why I thought it would be better if she has a personal guard. I can't say I agree to let her choose on her own..."

"But you've heard about her. She held back a witch all on her own, and protected me from the crash."

"Yes, I have heard. And I believe I have told you to never interrupt me when I'm talking, have I not...? Know your place."

"Yes, Father."

The whole exchange was smooth and monotonous, as if it was a normal conversation between a parent and child.

But in Izetta's mind, it couldn't be farther away from the word "normal".

"You are my most important person in the world, Finé. I wish you would remember that," he continued, "Like during the train incident. How many times have I told you not to go there yourself? Even if it is a formal invitation from Westria, there is no need for you to attend."

"You have said that I have the right to go as long as a foreign invitation has my name clearly listed on it."

"Don't make me laugh. That is because you begged for it. And look at the results. You didn't listen to my warnings and nearly got killed because of it. Don't you expect to ever take one step out of the palace after this, Ortfiné. If the stone weren't there, you would've had died."

The Princess's face was as hard as a stone, but she didn't give him a reply.

"...and that includes the royal guards as well," he said.

"Then I'll listen to you for this. Have an exceptional, powerful, loyal companion to watch over me at all times. We already have our woman, all I ask for is your consideration and approval," she said with a languid wave of her hand.

The eccentric man who wiped out Izetta's kind, the ruler who bore such a deep raw hatred of witches, finally stared down at Izetta with intrigue and skepticism in his narrow, searching eyes.

The redhead returned that intense glare with an innocent one, she knew that right now she had to exhibit to the Archduke that she was as harmless as a puppy to the royal family, no matter how much she despised him.

"Have we met before...?" he asked with a quiet voice.

"...I believe we haven't," she answered calmly.

"I'm pretty sure I have seen you somewhere before."

"My apologies, but I am convinced this is the first time we meet, Your Highness," she dismissed.

The Archduke was silent for a few moments before he finally let out a sigh and spoke to Finé, "...Very well. I have heard enough testimonies from the guards about her. She is yours to keep."

Izetta could see the Princess's eyes lighting up, but the Archduke didn't let them rejoice for long.

"At least there is a silver lining to your eventful little trip. The witches' attack on your train had ignited international outrage. It was only lately that the European countries and the Vatican decided to give it a serious thought. They have agreed to sign my proposal on the complete annihilation of witches," he said with obvious glee, "The groundwork of our grand and holy mission has finally been laid down. Our army will begin the cleansing abroad in several days, after the carnival season is over, and once we get there those sinful beings shall exist no longer. Only after then can Europe be saved from damnation and have eternal peace."

As the Archduke then launched himself into a lengthy account of his meeting with the supportive world leaders, the color drained from Izetta's face.

The Anathemas' terror attack on the train had convinced the world leaders to follow the Archduke's beliefs. Izetta didn't quite understand how humans judged their kind or whether this meant the Archduke was above the international law, but from his tone alone Izetta knew this news spelled doom for what was left of the witches.

The reason the White Witches escaped to Westria was because it was a country that refused to bear arms unless necessary.

But now that Westria had probably agreed to let Eylstadt come to their country to murder the witches...they would have nowhere else to run.

The whole Europe was against them now.

And soon...the whole world.

Izetta's time was running out fast.

For the sake of those remaining witches, she had to steal that stone as soon as she possibly could, or die trying.

By this point, she didn't have any other choice.