She understood.
“Is it… cold in there? Like on the bottom of Ragdorian Lake… is it cold and dark?”
Saito stands in the place where I can’t go… where my voice will never reach him. Though she knew that, she could not help but say it.
“I want to meet you.”
Louise closed her eyes.
And… she muttered in a fading voice.
“Can I go too?”
No tears left. Just a body, dully wrapped in helpless numbness.
“I can't bear it anymore. I can't bear the parting in the dream. Therefore, can I go to the place where you are?”
Louise knew.
There’s only one way to get there…
But, this would mean betraying everything.
Betraying her duty to her mother country, her mission as Void user, her hopes and beliefs, loved ones… and Saito too, who died to save her… she would be betraying that too.
Louise understood that well. However, she could not think of anything else.
But now, being saved meant to meet her kind familiar again, only this way.
“I want to tell you those words. Those that I could not utter even in my dream… So, can I go to meet you? I want to say them by all means. I want to tell them to you… So, forgive me.”
Louise rose from the bed and headed towards the door barefooted.
Midnight.
Louise chose the artillery tower, where people rarely came. She could not remember how she got there. By the time she noticed, she was already standing on the roof. The roof of the round tower was a staircase leading towards the void in the stars and nothingness. A low stone fence enclosed the circumference of the roof.
-tap tap tap- Louise approached the stone fence and climbed on top of it.
When she stood there, she looked down to the ground. It was pitch-dark and nothing below could be seen. Yet, she felt that somewhere on the other side of darkness, Saito waited for her.
“If I go to the same place… we can meet.”
She whispered and tried to take that one step into the space.
However… she couldn't take that step forward. Her legs were not obeying her. Contrary to her will, her body still wanted to live, which angered Louise.
“Saito… is in that pitch-dark place… and you're regretting some light?”
When she decisively bit her lip… the voice came from behind.
“Miss Vallière! Please stop!”
When she turned around, she saw Siesta standing there.
Apparently, Siesta was worried about Louise. She might have been the one that brought her food as well.
Unable to look straight at her face, she subconsciously averted her eyes.
“What are you trying to do?!”
“C-calm down.”
“Even if you do that, it will not bring Saito back!”
“Maybe so… but I cannot meet him anyway. Upon casting the Summon Servant spell, the gate opened. I’ve got to do it, or I will never meet him.”
“Summon Servant, so what?!”
Siesta ran up to Louise, trying to catch her.
However, her feet tangled with her long dress… and she fell down.
“Ah!”
Siesta fell forwards… pushing Louise.
Feeling her body in the air, Louise closed her eyes.
In her mind, words flashed.
I can meet Saito…
In there, you will warm me up, right?
It must be really cold in there…
And then, I will tell you those words.
The words that has not been said for a long, long time… I will say.
“Say. To say. Will say…”
She muttered softly, waiting for the impact with the ground that was about to come…
Yet, there was nothing.
“…N?”
Louise timidly opened her eyes.
Then… she saw the shape of the tower lit by the moon. However, it was not up above. When Louise looked up, she saw Siesta gripping her ankle.
“Siesta?”
“A, auuuu…”
It looked like a tough position. Siesta was barely hanging by one foot on the stone fence.
“L-let go.”
“W-w-won’t let go.”
“Do you want to fall down as well?! It’s all right, let me go!”
“Han, ngh, won’t!”
Siesta said fiercely.
“If Miss Vallière dies, Saito will be sad. He… used the sleeping pills that I gave to him… to let you go, didn’t he? Even though I told him to use them! Therefore, I won’t let you go. Saito-san didn’t want you to die! So, I won’t let you die either! Absolutely not!”
“C-calm down…”
Louise said weakly, yet Siesta still kept shouting.
“Please do not misunderstand me! Miss Vallière is still no good! But, I do not want to see the tears of the one I love… gugugu…”
“Saito cannot shed tears anymore!”
“Why? Do you have evidence of his death?”
“Haven’t I told you already?! Summon Servant-“
“I don’t understand these magic things! Summon Servant, so what! Rather than those things, I believe in the one I love!”
Once she said “believe in the one I love”, something lit up in Louise's heart.
Feelings to which she was not been able to be honest with, while timidly crying in her bed.
Siesta repeated it loudly.
“You love him! So why don’t you believe in him?!”
“B-because…”
Her dried up tear glands… were filled with tears again. Because she was hanging upside down, the tears ran down her temples.
“Even I… was depressed. But, if we don’t believe, then who will? Right?”
“Uh, uuuh…”
“Saito-san in Albion said to me, when I was worrying, if something bad might happen to him, he said ‘Calm down. It’s all right. Everything is all right. When you return back to the school, please make the stew for me again.‘ I don't believe in God, Founder Brimir or the kind… I believe just in these words!”
Siesta exclaimed.
Saito said it to me.
“I’ll protect Louise.”
For Saito, going somewhere alone, where Louise could not be defended, was impossible.
Because Saito protected me from all the things.
When in need, I was always saved by him. Therefore…
Louise wiped the tears away with the back of her hand.
I was embarrassed, thinking that there was no other way.
I was weak.
Siesta, who cannot use any magic, was much stronger than me.
Even if you can use the legendary element… it is only a wasted treasure when one’s mind is weak.
Seeing the weeping Louise, Siesta said.
“…Uhm, Miss Vallière. I’m sorry for what I said.”
“It’s all right. It’s all right. I'm the one who's sorry…”
“Really, that, umm, I'm sorry. What I just said is about to become completely useless.”
“It is not useless. You taught me an important thing… I won’t forget it. So, don’t worry.”
“Not that.”
“Eh?”
“My foot is at its limit.”
Then the foot upon which Siesta was desperately supporting herself slipped off the wall.
They both plummeted directly towards the ground, screaming.
In Vestri Courtyard…
Montmorency asked Guiche at her side…
“…What do you want to show me, in the middle of the night?”
When she was sleeping, she was asked to come here. But… even if you came here, was there anything? Could he be having some strange thoughts? Montmorency glared at Guiche.
“No, it’s because I completed something with great effort. And I called you at such time because… I wanted you to be the first to see it.”