What the Smoke Awoke

And yet the monster before his eyes was worth a very great deal. The highest grade of all.

"A gryphon……."

A gryphon, shaped as if a lion and an eagle had been joined into one, was a monster of which few specimens existed. Its appearance was exceedingly beautiful, and yet it was so ferocious as to beggar description, and there was no way to catch one. Even if a man were lucky enough to come face to face with it, running was the wisest choice he could make if he meant to keep his life.

And yet here was that gryphon—not cut apart and mounted in pieces, but preserved whole, like this?

"Oh……."

Noah wore a dazed look as he carefully ran his hands over the beautifully taxidermied gryphon. The great, hard beak looked ready to split wide at any moment; the cold eyes glittered where they caught the light; the feathers had been set with rigid precision. Drawing on every year of experience he had accumulated, Noah dared to swear it. Of all the monster mounts he had ever seen, this one was the most precious.

"But who on earth would send something like this……."

Muttering to himself, he suddenly remembered.

"……Grand Duke Fenrik."

Noah's mouth split into a grin unpleasant to look at.

"His origins are as base as they come, but it seems he has an eye after all."

The talk of wanting to become friends had not been some empty story he had made up. Otherwise, how could he have sent something this precious as a gift?

It happened while Noah was carefully looking the monster mount over from every side. With a soft thud, a small wrapped thing that had been tucked in beside the mount tumbled across the floor.

"A scented candle?"

Cut in a hexagonal shape, the candle looked quite expensive at a glance. Noah carefully breathed in its scent, and a thoroughly satisfied expression settled over his face.

"More of a romantic streak than he lets on."

They were gifts that suited his taste to perfection. There was, of course, no courtesy of the sender's name written anywhere, nor a short letter enclosed with them, but Noah was certain. The one who had sent this rare gift could only be Fenrik.

"……."

Noah shoved the candle into the pocket of his robe, grunted, and pushed the handcart with all his strength. Then, just like that, he set off toward the room where every sort of collection was gathered.

Where this beautiful monster mount belonged—he knew better than anyone.

He would not be able to hang it on the wall, but the mount was immense—large enough to cover the wall and then some. If he drew the sofa a little forward, turned it the other way, and set the mount before the wall, it would be perfect.

"Damn it. If I'd known it would come to this, I never would have given them the holiday……."

Ordinarily he would have ordered the servants to do it, but as he had told Fenrik, Noah had given them leave. They would not be back until next week at the earliest, and Noah was not nearly patient enough to wait until then with nothing done.

"Hah……."

A long while later, having finished preparing a place for the mount, Noah carelessly wiped away the beads of sweat that had sprung up on his brow. Then he took the mount down from the handcart and set it in the spot he had marked.

"Just as I thought……."

Magnificent. Gazing at the gryphon mount now covering the wall that had been nothing but bare, Noah smiled as if thoroughly satisfied.

At length, his face a little worn, he sat on the sofa he had pushed right up beside the mount, and lit the candle that had come enclosed with it. As expected, the fragrance the candle gave off pleased him just as much.

"……."

He looked at the candle burning down with a pleasant crackle, then at the mount before his eyes…… and for a long while Noah busied himself alone in just that way. Before long, he began to nod.

He wanted to savor this leisure a little longer, this splendid moment……. Even as he thought it, his eyelids were heavy as lead and showed no intention of growing light. To be honest, it could not be helped. Mixed into that beautiful candle were ingredients Noah knew nothing of. Of course, the fact that Noah did not know was the beginning of every tragedy.

"……."

Over the face of the sleeping Noah played the smoke the candle breathed out, in a strange, uncanny color. Burning down without end, and far too fast, the candle spewed smoke without cease. And so, before long, the enormous gryphon mount before Noah was likewise swallowed in that smoke.

Then, in the gryphon's eyes—draped in the dazzling moonlight that spilled in secret through curtains not quite fully drawn, and in smoke of that uncanny color—a sharp, alien gleam flashed.

Utterly unlike a moment ago, when they had been the eyes of a doll in which not a trace of life could be found.

And then, not long after…….

The gryphon flung its great beak wide and lunged straight for the nape of the sleeping Noah's neck.

Two days had passed since Fenrik's visit.

What was a little unexpected was that Dietrich had not come again. Look at Atar alone—after she chose the Bugged Choice, hadn't he run utterly wild? She had worried Dietrich might do the same, but instead he was quiet.

But Presepe knew better than anyone that this uneasy quiet would not last. That damned event, being locked in the Ice Prison, was right on top of her. To be precise, in exactly two days.

After that event the game would race forward, and the male characters would appear often. In other words, the gaps within the game in which she could still move of her own will, as she had these past few days, would vanish.

So before then, somehow……. She had to go to the place she had newly learned of. Whatever excuse she had to invent.

"Lady Presepe, you mean to go out?"

Startled, perhaps, by a behavior Presepe had never once shown, Ella asked with a face of pure disbelief.

"You know perfectly well, don't you? If you wish to leave the tower, you must first receive His Majesty the Emperor's permission!"

"I'm not even saying I'll leave the Imperial Palace. I mean to go to the church inside it. And it's not even a ten-minute walk."

"Even if it's less than ten minutes on foot, outside is still outside! Just who are you trying to get punished this time?!"

Ella's reaction was cold to the bone. Well, it was the face she always showed, so there was nothing particularly surprising about it.

"Going to the church is for His Majesty's sake, too. I want to go and offer a prayer for his safety. You heard, didn't you? About what happened to Prince Atar."

Ella faltered.

"His Majesty will understand."

Presepe knew better than anyone that she was forcing the point. But she had no choice. These past few days the mood had been unsettled by Prince Atar's death, and now the Ice Prison event was immediately ahead, so there was not enough time.

"Understand? Do you think His Majesty will simply sit by? If you truly wish to go out, obtain permission first."

"No. I have to go right now. If you try to stop me, I'll go alone."

"……."

"Or come with me. Wouldn't that be better for you, too?"

At Presepe's words, Ella's face stiffened, just barely.

If she went out with her, she would be punished not only for failing to stop Presepe, but for going along as well. If she did not follow, she would be punished for letting her out alone. She was probably weighing which would be the harsher. And the answer was already decided.

"You will offer your prayer and come straight back. Do you understand?"

Presepe shrugged instead of answering, and Ella, her face thoroughly crumpled, began to prepare to go out.

Hm. She truly doesn't think of me as her mistress in the slightest. Even so, it hardly mattered.

"……."

Presepe watched Ella bringing the outer robe, then unconsciously turned her gaze aside—to the empty vase sitting on the table.

"Ella, by any chance, did you or the maids put that vase there?"

"Pardon?"

Ella, her face still crumpled, looked at the vase.

"I thought it came when His Majesty furnished the tower before. Was I wrong?"

"Ah, right. I think it was brought in then. I only asked because I got mixed up."

So it wasn't, after all. The flower that had been placed there only once—in a game this full of bugs, she supposed such a thing was possible.

Presepe let out a sigh as she looked at the vase, then put on the outer robe Ella had draped over her with precious little care.

As the guide window had explained, the church was not far from Presepe's tower. Ten minutes on foot, at most.

Every building standing in the Imperial Palace of Atelloia was, without a single exception—no. Setting aside only Presepe's bleak tower, every one of them was extravagant beyond belief. And this church was one of the largest and most splendid buildings in the palace. It would rank among the top five, at the very least. The church was that grand, and grander still. Magnificent, in a word.

Because of Siegfried, she had thought the world of Presepe in the Birdcage—more precisely, the empire called Atelloia—was closely bound to the Church, but she had never imagined it would be to this extent.

In any case, Ella seemed deeply displeased by Presepe's reckless behavior.