Merka gently rocked Turing, pouring all her love and care into her.
But Turing seemed lost in the terrible aftermath of her nightmare, unresponsive. No matter how much Merka called to her, she wouldn’t wake.
Shabai stood silently across from Merka.
The flames flickering over her body cast a massive shadow before Turing. It looked just like an angel’s outspread wings, gently sheltering the two of them.
Turing’s slightly reddened bangs hid her face.
They also shut Merka out from even the faintest chance of reading Turing’s thoughts.
Suddenly.
Turing remembered something from a very, very long time ago.
All her memories lay exposed before her, like the bed of a dried-up river.
The riverbed of memory was covered everywhere with jagged, cracked, hexagonal scars.
The pain of the past embraced Turing once more.
She regained all the memories she had once lost.
And with them came the pain she hadn’t felt in so long.
Amid that tangled mass of memories, she realized the person she owed the most was Diana.
Because her memories were incomplete... almost every time Turing spoke with Diana, she chose the worst possible response.
The other nobles gradually distanced themselves from Turing because she was so difficult to get along with.
Only Diana, even so, continued to admire and look up to Turing.
Like a frail river-tow worker... she threw herself onto Turing’s impossible-to-stand-on shore, again and again.
And even when, at the very end, she collapsed on the sand, utterly exhausted, and gazed with hatred at the shore that was slowly swallowing her...
She still treated Turing with the most sincere kindness.
There was no doubt about it.
She loved Turing.
Back to the Curseborn uprising in Alexandria.
An arrow struck Turing, and she and Diana fell into a sea cave below the cliff.
With danger closing in, Turing unleashed her half-angel power and rescued Diana from the seaside cave.
Beneath the cold moon, Turing held Diana in her arms like a princess.
She spread her ink-black wings and flew straight up to the top of the cliff.
Riding the moonlight, they landed on the cliff. They sat at its edge, silently watching the waning moon shattered across the surface of the sea.
A silence settled in their hearts, as heavy as a thousand barren mountains.
“Diana.”
“Tell me, am I a good person?”
Turing pulled the arrow from her own head and spoke to Diana.
She casually wiped the blood from her face, and her cheek was restored as if nothing had happened.
It was as if she’d suddenly entered a clear, detached state. A frightening calm settled over her.
“...”
Diana had completely lost the playful energy she usually had around Turing.
She’d only just escaped mortal danger, and now she’d seen this unknown side of Turing. Diana needed a long time to process it all.
She silently gazed at the moonlit sea, her spirits seemingly at rock bottom.
Her legs dangled over the cliff. Looking down at her pale, slender feet swaying gently, she began to speak.
“Honestly...”
“Sis isn’t exactly someone people like.”
Diana paused, then turned to look at Turing.
“Sis has a great memory, but she only seems to remember things that benefit her—things that serve her own interests.”
“Sis is incredibly smart, but she never puts even a fraction of that into building relationships with people.”
“Sis... is very beautiful.”
“But her presence keeps people at arm’s length. She often scares them.”
Turing couldn’t help thinking to herself:
“I’m not that unapproachable...”
But Diana quickly cut off that thought.
“But...”
“...it still seems a little rash to define Sis so easily as either a good person or a bad one.”
“Sis is a very complicated person...”
“And the person I love most.”
“Sis, I believe you’ll be the one who wins in the end.”
“But you’ll be the only winner.”
“When everything’s settled, you’ll be the only one on the winner’s podium.”
“There might not even be anyone else in the audience.”
“You’re going to be lonely, Sis...”
“And when that happens, you’ll remember what I said.”
Diana turned to face Turing, knelt on the ground with her back to the moonlight, and boldly wrapped her arms around her.
She gently pressed her tender lips—bathed in moonlight and moistened by the sea—against Turing’s cheek, giving it a soft peck.
With her gaze lowered, she whispered to Turing.
“Sis is lonely, and she’s exceptional.”
“So lonely that everyone else will die before you, and so exceptional that no one has the right to define you as good or bad.”
Turing’s eyes widened in shock. She stared at Diana, whose cheeks were faintly flushed, as the girl kissed her without changing her expression.
“Diana...”
At Turing’s soft call, Diana only shook her head.
“You’ll just forget about this again when you go home for the holidays this year, won’t you, Sis...?”
“For me, it doesn’t matter anymore what I do.”
The nightmare’s aftershocks shook Turing, leaving her unable to recover for a long time. She could barely tell reality from the dream.
The faces of her sisters, companions, mentors, and comrades who had died all surged into Turing’s mind, whispering and dragging at her, as if they meant to tear her sense of self apart.
She was terrified.
Suddenly, she realized...
She’d missed every one of those precious things.
She’d gotten everything wrong.
“Turing, Turing...”
“What’s wrong with you? Please, tell me.”
“I’m worried about you!”
Merka raised her voice, and at last Turing woke.
“Ah... huh?”
As if waking from a dream, Turing looked into Merka’s beautiful eyes, at a loss.
“Huff... huff.”
“Sis, let’s go.”
“It’s getting colder and colder here... I feel like I’m going to freeze solid.”
Standing behind Turing, Shabai rubbed her arms and suddenly spoke up.
