Snap.
Rafina heard the sound of something snapping.
A string inside her mind snapped.
The string that had been pulled taut since she was six years old, never once slackening—the one named “I know Nia”—had snapped.
She took a step forward.
She didn't know why she was walking forward. Her legs moved on their own, completely independent of her reason. Her mind had ground to a halt, frozen on those words: “second friend.”
Her first instinct was that the Saintess was lying. The Saintess clearly meant that she was just as incredibly important to Esper as she was—a friend so close they were practically lovers...
What a joke!
“Nia and I have been together for ten years. Ten years! I was by her side when she was still a little brat wearing braces!”
“How could Nia not tell the difference? How could Nia put someone she just met on the same scale as me? It was ten years between us! Ten years!”
But Rafina's footsteps halted as she went to take her second step. Because Eladia was still holding Esper, still staring at her with those sky-blue eyes. There was no hesitation in those eyes, nor any hint of fear.
It was as if she hadn't been lying at all. But that wasn't right. How could that be? How could she not be lying?
If she wasn't lying, didn't that mean Nia was about to be stolen away by this woman? So she had to be lying... She was absolutely lying!
But... but...
Rafina stood frozen. The tip of her tail twitched slightly against the floor, then went completely still again. What if she wasn't lying?
She suddenly realized something. When Nia screamed at her, when Nia threw the hairpin in her face, when Nia said she hated her... the one standing behind Nia and wiping away her tears was this Saintess. Not her.
Rafina had once been her one and only, her best friend. That position had been so secure, even surpassing her sister's place in her heart, that Rafina had once believed their bond was unbreakable.
But she had miscalculated. She had lost that position. She had personally left that position vacant, and someone else had stepped up and taken it.
Every word spoken after that had pushed things beyond the realm of any possible answer. So she could only stare fixedly at the two of them with her crimson eyes.
She watched the Saintess support Esper, watched Esper close her eyes as she leaned against the Saintess, her hand still clutching the Saintess's sleeve, as if she instinctively refused to let go even in her sleep.
She remembered the two chairs placed so close together. She remembered their hands holding each other. She was the challenger now.
“No... Please, no...”
Rafina lost all her strength and collapsed to the floor, the intricate layers of her skirt spreading out around her like falling petals.
Esper let out a breath.
“...Ela.”
“Yes... Esper...”
“Let's go.”
Rafina's pupils shrunk to pinpricks.
Go? Where were they going? Were they leaving this place?
Was Nia going to leave me? No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!!!
Panic-stricken, Rafina scrambled to her feet. Ignoring her trailing skirt, she stumbled blindly toward Esper.
Before Esper could react, she grabbed Esper's hand. The hand that wasn't being held by Ela.
“Don't...”
“...Let go of my hand.”
“No!!!”
Thud.
Rafina fell to her knees on the floor.
“I'm sorry... It's all my fault... Nia... Nia...”
Her hands clutched Lonia's hand in a death grip, like a sinner at the bottom of hell desperately clinging to a single thread of spider silk.
“Nia... don't leave me again... I beg of you... Nia...”
Eladia felt the girl beside her begin to tremble all over.
“Esper...”
“I... I...”
Esper turned her head to look at Eladia.
She saw what was in Esper's eyes: struggle, confusion, pain, and conflict.
“Ela...”
“...”
Eladia nodded.
“Esper... just do whatever you want to do...”
“...”
She looked at Ela.
She looked at the girl who had stayed by her side during her darkest, most miserable times.
The girl who sang her a birthday song, the girl who was always trying her best for her, the girl who held her in her despair and told her that none of it was her fault.
The girl whose entire life she had sworn to carry on her shoulders.
“...Yeah.”
Esper shook off Rafina's hand.
“I'm sorry.”
This time, she was the one saying it to her.
“Rafina, let's end it here.”
She led Eladia toward the door, leaving Rafina all alone.
“I hope you'll be happy.”
...
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