my blood and secrets run freely from my mouth?" Her voice was calm and dignified, and it rang thick with determination. Even now, she was still searching for a respectable option. Either way, her path would be a thorny one, but she had steeled her resolve and, if need be, was prepared to commit a betrayal of her own. Elisabeth gave a brief nod. Even as the Torture Princess, she knew. When one option carried the danger of sparking interracial tensions, the other was obviously sounder. "I cannot offer you any firm promises, as protection is hardly my forte. But if our assumption does end up holding true...then I shall devote whatever resources I can to ensuring their survival. Will that do?" "That is acceptable. Given my current position, negotiating better terms than that is beyond me. But know thisâ€”you shall hear this information from my lips but once. For your sake, I hope you can glean meaning from it." The pride possessed by pureblood demi-humans was difficult to overstate. In one sense, it was insipid, and in another, regal. Steadfastly maintaining her dignity to the bitter end, Aguina's wife spoke. "The way things are going, war may be inevitable. I have no intention of letting the calamity affect you or our people, but if you feel that you're in danger, gather the rest of the purest bloods and turn to the Sand Queen. She will lead you to us and our son.' That is the totality of what my husband told me." "'Turn to the Sand Queen'... Meaning her corpse?" "Such irreverence. In our land, you would be executed for a comment like that." Elisabeth ignored Aguina's wife's admonishment. The Torture Princess frowned. Aguina may have been obsessed with blood purity, but he was also a pragmatist through and through. Whatever he was getting at, it must have been something that would actually work. Are the settlement's coordinates recorded on the Sand Queen's corpse somehow? No...just telling the purebloods where it is would be insufficient, given that they'd still need to cross the desert afterward. Some sort of teleportation mechanism installed in the corpse, then? Nothing happened when we blew it up, though... As Elisabeth sank into thought, she looked up. Aguina's wife was staring at her, almost as though trying to figure her out. Their negotiations were complete. Elisabeth gave her a wave to set her mind at ease. "...That concludes my boorish task, so I shall be out of your hair now. Forgive the intrusion, wife of Aguina." "Satisbarina." "Hmm?" Elisabeth cocked her head. From her human perspective, the word sounded almost like a tongue twister. Aguina's wife laid her wounded fingers atop her mouth and let out a sigh. "I see you're a little slow. It's my nameâ€”Satisbarina Elephabred. I am not 'Suffering Woman,' nor am I 'wife of Aguina.' We have made an oath, you and I, and as such, I expect you to remember that." "Ah, I see... Then, Satisbarina, I have something I would tell you in turn." "By all means, speak your piece." Satisbarina gracefully offered Elisabeth the floor. Elisabeth crossed her arms. She hadn't minded most of the accusations Satisbarina leveled her way, but there was one thing she couldn't let stand uncorrected. "'Tis as you saidâ€”I am the Torture Princess, a weapon of the Church, and a sinner. But I've no need of your pity, and moreover, I am no consort of the Mad King's. He is a married man and a devoted one at that." "Oh, goodness me, I had no idea. My deepest apologies; I see I've touched on a painful subject." Satisbarina covered her mouth, not sure what to say. However, there was nothing that needed saying. Elisabeth got the sense that a new misunderstanding had taken the old one's place, but she turned around after deciding to leave things at that. A thought crossed her mind. 'Tis but a tale from long, long ago. Once upon a time, there was a boy who was brutally killed by another and a monster who brutally killed others. Or perhaps there was a child who was abandoned by his parents and a sinner who was abandoned by the world. By now, there was nobody left who knew how they had spent their days. But the sinner was fine with that. The two of them used to be together. That was enough for her. "Fare thee well, Satisbarina Elephabred." "And likewise to you, Torture Princess Elisabeth Le Fanu." Thus spoke the Suffering Women those who loved the enemies of the world as though vowing never to meet in that room again. And with that, they parted, much in the manner that friends did. Elisabeth exited the room, passing by the gatekeeper boy as she left. He silently stepped back and resumed his post. As he did, Elisabeth strode down the white corridor. With each wordless step she took, her thoughts turned and turned. ...After La Christoph's death, I sent a familiar to the demi-human palace and discovered that the rebel troops had thinned out. I retook the area Alice and Lewis vanished from, but...most of the rebels were gone, and they took the demi-humans and demon grandchildren with them. Satisbarina's assessment of the situation had been on the mark. They still hadn't found the rebels' stronghold, but even though there was no guarantee that the pureblood settlement was where they were holed up, the sheer lengths to which it had been concealed brought that to the forefront of Elisabeth's mind. She needed to reexamine the Sand Queen. Right when she reached that conclusion, though, her train of thought was interrupted. "Madam Elisabeeeeeeth!" "Ah! Y-you surprised me... Lute, is that you? For a moment, I half thought you the Butcher, back from the dead. So what is it? For you to come all this way down... Did something happen?" Elisabeth blinked repeatedly as she stared at the wolf-headed beastman who had just rushed up before her. It was Lute, vice-captain of the Peace Brigade and Elisabeth's direct subordinate. His tongue was longer than a human's, and it hung from his mouth as he panted to catch his breath. All his coppery fur was standing on end, his tail was puffed up and sticking straight out, and to top it all off, his ears were twitching up a storm. It was all too plain to see that something was up. Had there been another attack? Had the masses gotten even more out of control? Both perhaps? Elisabeth narrowed her eyes as she considered the possibilities. However, she could tell that none of them were it. Lute was shaking his head indecisively, his gaze wandering and his nose twitching. Then finally, he raised his voice. "Ah, to hell with it! I'm the first member of the Peace Brigade, and moreover, a sworn friend of Sir Kaito Sena's! For the greater good or not, I cannot sit by silently and watch this happen!" "Kaito Sena? What, did something happen to Kaito?" If so, that was a whole different story altogether, and his alarm was well warranted. Elisabeth took a step forward as she spoke. For some reason, seeing his captain's reaction seemed to help cool Lute's head. He straightened his posture and gave his report. "In the tripartite conference I was just attending as a guard, the discussion turned to the crowds protesting across the land. Things have settled down in the Capital, but the people in outlying areas are rioting. Casualties are already starting to occur, and there's concern that the rebels will use it as an opportunity to attack. And so the conference reached a decision." Lute took a deep breath. Before he could finish, though, Elisabeth sensed what he was about to say. She hoped against hope that her prediction was off the mark, but his next words served to squash that possibility. "Handing the vessel of God and Diablo over to the rebels is off the table. Instead..." Before the masses had a chance to become completely uncontrollable they would destroy the crystal, with Sir Kaito Sena in it. "I see. A prudent measure." Elisabeth delivered her succinct response in the quietest of murmurs. Her tepid reaction almost earned her a dismayed howl from Lute. You're okay with this?! he seemed to be on the verge of shouting. But he took a single look at her face, and that was enough to drive him silent. Elisabeth had no idea what her own expression looked like, and in truth, she didn't much care. She just slowly closed her eyes. For Elisabeth Le Fanu knew. It was as one would their confidante, or their brother, or their savior. As one would a kind, incorrigible foolâ€” As one would any whom they ought to loveâ€” Elisabeth Le Fanu loved Kaito Sena. And so if the world was going to betray himâ€” â€”then she had no choice but to betray the world. 4 Atop a Farcical Stage The room was red. It was dyed all over with the color of fresh blood. As always, a chessboard sat atop its plain desk. Things had been bad to begin with, but now the pieces were truly scattered all over the place. The lines of marchers and throngs of rioters had only grown, and it was clear at a glance that the game had been thrown into disarray. Most noticeable of all, though, was the fact that the person sitting in front of the board was gone. In his place, there was but a single cold cup of tea. There was a figure in one of the other seats, though. Not a human, mind you. No, it was Hina, the Mad King's eternal lover and beloved automaton bride. For some reason, she was looking down. She bit her lip, a curtain of her silver hair hanging down around her face. Her petite fists were clenched tight atop the hem of her maid uniform's skirt, and her emerald-green jewel eyes were like veritable oceans of sorrow. Let us briefly entertain a hypothetical. If, at that moment, the Torture Princess had been there with her she would have spoken to her in the gentlest of voices. Come nowâ€”there's no need to be so sad, she'd have said. Then she would have stroked her head. A smile suits you far better, does it not? But hypotheticals are inherently meaningless creations. And without meaning, a creation is good for nothing. Hina's dearest lady wasn't there. That was the truth, and that was all there was to it. She was all alone. And off in the distance she could hear a girl singing. Apparently, the protests in the Capital came to a surprisingly peaceful conclusion. To borrow Jeanne's explanation, "Hags don't fuck around!" In a sense, it was utterly incredible how she had managed to convey no information whatsoever. Afterward, Izabella filled in the blanks. "When the people were marching, an old woman went and stood in their way, you see. Then she faced the people demanding the Torture Princess be turned over and called them 'FOOOOOLS!' at the top of her lungs." Then, without so much as faltering, she addressed the crowd. She said that if they wanted to keep going, they'd have to kill her first. As she put it, "If y'all aren't willing to cut down a single old bat like me, then how great can your cause really be?" It was a dangerous, stupid thing to do. But it worked. The old woman was dead serious, and in contrast, the throng was utterly exhausted. The march ground to a halt. Eventually, a priest popular among the masses came out and was able to peacefully defuse the situation. Hearing that last bit came as a surprise to Elisabeth. Not long ago, such a thing would have been unthinkable, but it would appear that after the deaths of Godd Deos and La Christoph, the Church was slowly becoming more proactive. It was a welcome change, as any organization that sat