The Executioner and Her Way of Life, Vol. 3: The Cage of Iron Sand

“Now, it just so happens that I have a friend who came from that very village… I felt I must memorialize their sacrifice, so I investigated the family registry. And would you believe it? There wasn’t a single record of a girl named Menou coming from that village!”

“Five seconds.”

“Which is why I’m wondering…”

“Three seconds.”

“…Where exactly did our dear Menou come from?”

The Guiding Branches spread.

They burst out of Manon’s body, overriding even her shadow. It was an attack with merciless force and no way to escape.

“Honestly. That almost got really bad!”

“Thank you for saving me. That was so exciting. I thought I was going to be blown to bits.”

An innocent voice rang out from beyond the reach of the branches.

Pandæmonium was standing outside the attack range of the Guiding Branches, and somehow, she was holding a completely unharmed Manon in her arms.

“There you are.”

While the Master shifted as though preparing for the real battle, Manon patted Pandæmonium’s head softly.

“Now then, let’s run away, shall we? That woman over there is ‘it.’”

“Mm, a game of tag! How exciting.”

As Manon promptly chose to flee in spite of the addition of Pandæmonium’s aid, Flare’s scowl deepened slightly for the first time, and she touched the Guiding Branches.

Guiding Force: Connect (via Guiding Branches)—Dagger, Crest—Invoke [Thunderclap]

The Guiding Force in the branches that had expanded to the size of the giant demon they’d destroyed converted all at once into electricity. An overpowering amount of heat rolled toward Manon, and a massive bolt of lightning shot up from the ground toward the sky.

“…Looks like they got away.”

The Master looked around. Manon was gone. She’d escaped.

That was fine. If she couldn’t crush Pandæmonium’s little finger, it was for the best that she let Manon live, too. It would be easier to track down Pandæmonium if she was working with Manon toward a goal than if she was rampaging indiscriminately on her own.

Flare had no more business here. As she began walking, a voice spoke to her.

“Knowing the future isn’t always a blessing. Sometimes, that knowledge comes with even more duties to perform.”

It came from the scripture the priestess was holding.

“More importantly, Master: I do not believe we can avoid contact from Elder—Magician—much longer.”

“Listen up. You’re a piece of junk, got it? It makes perfect sense that you would fail to receive a communication signal over and over.”

“Oh, very well. Excellent as I am, I suppose I can continue to carry out your absurd demands.”

“Good. That idiot’s about to betray her anyway. I don’t care how much
Time
changes, but…”

She threw her head back and laughed, her mouth open wide.

“…We’ve got to prevent the second coming of
Ivory
, no matter what happens.”

After about half a day of travel through the desert, Menou made it back to the inn where Akari was supposed to be waiting.

All she wanted to do now was rest. Her body was covered in small cuts and bruises. Most of all, she was completely exhausted, a deep-seated fatigue that would be hard to recover from.

However, she wasn’t exactly alone.

Technically speaking, yes, Menou was on her own. She had come back by herself.

“…I wanna die.”

Her scripture spoke.

It was an incredibly gloomy voice. Menou gingerly opened her scripture, and Guiding Light rose up from the pages.

The light formed a three-dimensional image: a palm-sized projection of Sahara. She was sitting with her knees hugged to her chest and glaring up reproachfully at Menou.

Of course, Menou wasn’t just playing around with the projection technology of the scripture on her own.

Menou covered her face with her palm.

“How did it turn out like this…?”

“That’s what
I’d
like to know.”

Shockingly enough, Sahara’s soul and spirit were dwelling in Menou’s scripture. When and how had this happened in the midst of that battle? Was it when Menou was almost possessed, and she poured everything that had entered her body into the scripture instead? Or had Sahara’s soul and spirit turned into
something incredibly unique when she was possessed by the
Vessel
?

“I don’t want to live in disgrace. Burn me right now.”

“Can you really describe yourself as ‘living’ in this state?”

“The definition of ‘life’ is the combination of a body, a spirit, and a soul. I hate to admit it, but I’m guessing I’ve become a Guiding Force life-form with this scripture as my body.”

It was occasionally possible for a human to become a Guiding Force life-form.

This happened when the human body was discarded and the spirit and soul transferred elsewhere by way of Guiding Force technology.

Incidentally, doing this artificially was considered taboo. Even if it happened by chance, Menou could get into serious trouble for allowing Sahara to exist in her scripture.

Menou sank into silence. She knew she had to burn the scripture. And yet, it would be a tactical disadvantage to lose her scripture here.

“…I’ll wait until I can exchange my scripture in the next town.”

In all likelihood, Menou never would have made that decision back when she first met Akari.

“You’re the worst. This sucks. I want to die. Why do I have to be stuck hanging out with you of all people?”

“I don’t feel great about killing you a second time.”

“…Why does the scripture even have such an elaborate conjuring construction that it can store a person’s soul?”

Menou bit her lip.

Sahara had a point. If the scripture could transfer a human’s
spirit, that meant it already contained conjuring constructions that could produce a humanlike Guiding Force life-form.

“We might’ve just stumbled on a weird secret. Doesn’t this mean you’re on the verge of sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong? Why don’t you burn me before anyone else finds out?”

“Yes, well, I’ll think about it. For now, just make sure you don’t say a word in front of Akari. That would be such a headache, I don’t even want to think about it.”

“I’m on Team Akari, not Team Momo, so I want to support her however I can.”

“Also, I can’t seem to make contact with Momo. In fact, I’m having trouble constructing scripture conjurings in general at the moment.”

“I’m more than happy to prevent you from contacting that violent little shit…!”

“I see you still have strong feelings about that…”

This had to be some kind of bug.

If it was arbitrarily preventing her from using conjurings, this was basically a virus. Cursing at Sahara, who was still inconsiderate even now that she was a Guiding Force life-form, Menou entered their room at the inn.

There was no one inside.

“Akari…?”

Menou looked around for signs of life. Then her eyes fell on Momo’s scripture, left abandoned on the desk. Akari’s headband lay on top of it, holding down a single piece of paper in between.

I’m taking Akari Tokitou away.

That was all that was written there, in Momo’s own handwriting.

“Oh boy.”
If the voice coming from the scripture still had a body, she would definitely have been shaking her head and shrugging.
“This is why I told you to be careful about Momo.”

“But…why…?”

Momo was Menou’s assistant and dear friend.

Unexpectedly betrayed by the one girl she trusted most in the world, Menou could only stand in dumbfounded silence.