end. Yet in spite of that, there were human, beastfolk, and demi-human soldiers stationed before the wall of roots. Kaito stopped in front of them. The eagle beastman with vestigial wings on his arms bowed. The demi-human and human soldiers gave no response. Kaito took a deep breath, then spoke. "I heard she woke up. I got permission from representatives from every race, the Church aside, to interrogate her. Let me through." "Understood. Please go on in." As the beastman replied, the World Tree moved. The roots creaked as they shifted to the side. All the obstacles had been removed, and a straight path extended forward. There was nobody there, and no ornamentation of any kind. There was only the pale-white corridor of unseasoned wood continuing onward. Kaito gazed in earnest at the space. It threatened to throw his sense of time out of whack. Then he gently raised a hand. "Thanks. I'm heading in." "You know who it is you're dealing with. Don't let your guard down." "And make sure not to hurt her." That last bit had been appended by the human soldier. The demi-human was silent, as expected. Their intense stares were focused on Kaito's back as he went inside. The roots immediately writhed and reformed their wall. In other words, there was no turning back. Kaito nodded once, then started walking again. He continued on in silence. Eventually, a boy wearing a scarlet outfit came into view at the end of the corridor. Kaito frowned involuntarily. The scene seemed sinister; it reminded him of a single drop of blood floating atop human skin. A single feather, sprouting from her pale arm. The drop of blood had quivered atop her white skin, then collapsed. Kaito shook his head to clear away the image of what he'd seen back at the World's End. Then he spoke in as cheery a voice as he could muster. "Hey there, keep up the good work." The boy gave him a deep bow. He was a member of the Church, but he normally served as La Christoph's attendant. He had no connection to the reconstruction sect. They hadn't found out about the awakening yet. Kaito gazed intently at the boy. The boy nodded, as though in understanding. He then took a step to the side. A door bearing the coat of arms of the Three Kings of the Forest came into view from behind his scarlet-clad back. Kaito pressed his finger against its engraved surface. When he pushed, the door swung open so easily, it was almost anticlimactic. A heavy silence rose up to greet him. Just like the corridor, the room within was completely white. It was like a hospital, or perhaps a prison. It was almost completely empty; the only piece of furniture within was a modest bed. Atop the bed's clean sheets sat a thin woman. Her long, black hair ran down her slender back like a veritable river. She should have been able to hear the door opening, but she just sat motionlessly, her gaze fixed on the wall. However, there was nothing there. The room was located at the base of the World Tree. It wasn't like it had any windows. Yet still, she stared at that single point, as though to say there was something she could see. "Well, Miss Saint, how are you feeling?" Even Kaito himself could make out the sarcasm in his voice. The woman twitched, her shoulders moving for the first time. She slowly turned around. She was the Laughing Woman, the one whom Valisisa's private army had retrieved from the World's End. And she was the Suffering Saint, the one who'd destroyed the old world and brought about the rebuilding. The Saint's eyes were perfectly clear, and they reflected Kaito like mirrors. "I'm not the Saint anymore, you know." Those were the first words that came from the Saint's mouth. She calmly shook her head. Her sleek, black hair shook, casting a ring of light. From her appearance, she seemed young. However, her behavior revealed an elderly spirit, and the impression she gave off was that of a mother who'd borne countless children. Kaito slowly narrowed his eyes. It was true; at the moment, she was neither crying tears of blood nor strung upside down. She was simply sitting, clad in the white garb of a patient or a prisoner. She didn't look the part of the Saint in the least. But Kaito repeated himself. "No, you are the Saint. You're the one who destroyed the last world, who carried out the rebuilding, and who created this current world. You're the Church's object of worship, the Suffering Saint, the mother who gave birth to everything. Are you not?" "The Church's object of worship... True...I am. I...was. I know...that much. It's vague and faint and indistinct...but I know that much. Just...as I expected. I became an object of worship. They respected me...revered me...believed in me. Bah, what a load of shit!" Suddenly, her voice went shrill. While there was no zeal in her tone, her words had a frightening amount of loathing packed into them. Her lamentation struck Kaito like a knife. He waited silently for her to continue. The Saint clacked her eerily straight teeth. "They don't know the first thing about me." She practically spat out the words, her voice steeped in malice. Then she turned back around and fixed her gaze on a single point on the wall. It was almost as if she could see something. When she continued, her voice was dispassionate. "Yet even so, I was alone for so, so long." Her words cut off. She said no more. Then once again, she was still. Her silence was so deafening that it made it hard to believe she had ever been talking. Kaito shook his head and snapped his fingers. Azure flower petals and black darkness swirled as he created a small chair for himself. This time, it was simple and wooden, well befitting the room. As he sat down upon its narrow seat, he gazed at the Saint's skinny back and conspicuous shoulder blades. From behind, she seemed cold, as though she were rejecting the very world itself. He spoke: "Will you tell me about it?" "About what? At this point, what is there to talk about? The end is nigh. Nigh, don't you know? The end-time...hee-hee...hoh-hoh-hoh!" The Saint's frail shoulders shook as she lapsed into an unsettling fit of laughter. Kaito waited patiently for her to finish, then let out a heavy sigh. When he spoke, his voice had a stubborn kindness to it. "You've been fighting your own battle all this time, haven't you? And if that's the case, then I'm sure there was something you held inside yourself the whole while. Something that no one ever tried to look for. But maybe now it's time to tell the truth." "...The truth?" "For the longest time, people just believed that you carried out the rebuilding. That, as the Suffering Saint, you bore the burden of all their sins. In reality, though, you're a sinner without peer, the woman who single-handedly destroyed the previous world. What did you do? What was it you were trying to atone for?" At that point, Kaito trailed off for a moment. He closed his eyes and clenched his fists tight. Scenes from the World's End flashed in the darkness behind his eyelids. His face contorted wildly. However, the Saint's back was to him, so she was oblivious to his change. In order to set her mind at ease, or perhaps to get her to speak carelessly, Kaito maintained calmness in his voice alone. "Why did you throw it all away?" "It was too much." Her response was immediate. Kaito was taken aback. The Saint turned to face him again. Her unnaturally sleek hair draped across the bridge of her shapely nose. Her eyes were serene, but there was no life in them. They looked just like the sky at the World's End originally hadâ€”hollow. Her lips, on the other hand, were red and vibrant, and as the mother of all living creatures gave her statement, they contorted with a strange tenderness. "Yet despite that, you people weren't worth enough for me to keep bearing it." Not in the slightest, she seemed to imply. For a moment, Kaito felt a flash of gratitude at the fact that he was the only one who'd heard those words. If anyone from the Church had heard them, that alone might have been enough for them to kill themselves. After all, they'd been cruelly discarded by the very entity whom countless people had spent generations praying to and worshipping. A heavy silence descended upon the two of them. Kaito was the first to break it. A gentle smile spread across his face, and with a brief nod, he threw his arms out wide. "Yeah, I feel you. That makes sense." "...I beg your pardon?" The Saint looked over her shoulder, flustered. She clearly hadn't expected him to understand where she was coming from. It was the first time any real humanity had come across in her behavior. As he faced the confused woman, Kaito went on earnestly. "It makes sense that you'd feel like that. After all, prayer is supposed to be a one-way street. Whoever's being worshipped doesn't have any obligation to receive it. And the truth about the Saint was kept under wraps for ages. Anyone who knew even a piece of the truth was suppressed, and everyone else just blindly trusted what was laid out in front of them without even trying to notice how contradictory it was. They just worshipped you without a care in the world. If we do this, we'll be rewarded. If we do this, we'll be saved. From your perspective, them believing that nonsense was probably a sin in and of itself. And I'm not here to tell you otherwise." *** "But y'know, who gives a shit about all that?" A kind smile still plastered across his face, Kaito reached his arm out. The Saint's throat was as thin as a swan's, and Kaito squeezed it with one hand. His gentle expression didn't change in the slightest. The Saint tilted her head to the side a little. However, that was her only reaction. She couldn't even comprehend what was happening. It was only when Kaito lifted her slim body into the air that she started kicking her legs. Still holding her with one arm, Kaito rose from his chair. His voice was quiet and calm. "After all, you don't know the first thing about me, do you?" The Saint's cheeks quivered. She was about to refute his statement and murmur that she did know him, but she stopped midway. A look of bafflement floated across her empty eyes. As the Saint, she was acquainted with everything she'd birthed, even if that knowledge was only slight. Yet the boy standing before her seemed to be one of the few exceptions. Just as nobody had known who she truly wasâ€” â€”she knew nothing about him. "This body of mine is artificial, and the soul inside isn't one of your descendants. What that means is I don't have to sit here and listen to you spill your guts like some whiny fucking kid. I mean, if you were anyone else, I probably would anyway, but still." Kaito was a reasonably compassionate person. As far as the Saint was concerned, though, he had no sympathy to spare. He closed his eyes and forced himself to recall the things he'd seen back at the World's End. A woman bound by briars. Black feathers sprouting from her body and blooming into azure roses. A pained smile spreading across her beautiful, bloodstained face. Kaito's cheek twitched, as though he was fighting back tears. When he opened his eyes, though, they were dry. His voice went a tone deeper. "Unfortunately, I'm so pissed off at you that I could kill you three hundred