“Could you wait just a moment?”
Johanna said, stopping the tip of Tonelico‘s staff, which was about to unleash a vicious amount of magical energy, with her hand.
“I want to talk to you.”
It was an act that could only be considered insane, beyond courageous.
Morgan‘s magecraft, honed over 6,000 years, bordered on the realm of True Magic, and even a simple curse like Gandr possessed enough power to instantly kill a Servant.
Moreover, the spell Morgan was preparing now was a strike intended to unconditionally eliminate Johanna.
Even if Johanna used all of the Pope‘s Magic Resistance, the divinity of her cassock, and all three of Ritsuka‘s Command Spells, who wasn't even here, it was uncertain if she could survive.
And yet, Johanna stopped Morgan.
With just words and a light gesture.
Morgan let out a scoff.
Johanna‘s confident action was so absurd. It even felt like she was being looked down upon.
“You wench, are you mad?”
“No. I am neither mad nor have I lost my mind. I simply wish to have a conversation with you.”
“How absurd.”
Morgan shook off Johanna‘s hand and raised her staff once more.
“You are not even worth talking to. Do you think you can beguile me with words? I have seen more than enough of your kind.”
“I know. But may I correct you on one small thing? I am not trying to beguile you, I want to understand you.”
“It‘s the same thing.”
A far more vast amount of magical energy than before gathered in the staff. The condensed magical energy caused damage to the surroundings just by existing.
The living space of the clinic. The space that was once shared with Cael as Tonelico was being destroyed. By none other than Morgan's own hand.
The barrier that had never allowed any enemy intrusion warped, and furniture was torn apart by the wind pressure. The kitchenware shattered with a loud noise, leaving a silvery sparkle on the floor.
But even as the clinic was being destroyed, the room that Johanna was blocking remained unscathed.
Naturally, this was Morgan's intention.
Since the act was meant to intimidate Johanna in the first place, Morgan had no intention of harming him inside the room.
And yet, Johanna deliberately wrapped her magical energy around the outer wall of the room.
The magical energy of the deployed shield was certainly powerful, but in front of Morgan, it was less than a small sandcastle.
Why did she deploy a shield that was as good as useless?
Morgan immediately noticed the reason.
The shield deployed on the room was in the shape of protecting the room from Morgan's magical energy.
Morgan clicked her tongue.
“How amusing. Have you forgotten whose space this is? Your protection is nothing but a facade that will be swept away by a single gesture of my hand. It is not you who protected Cael, but I who left him alone.”
“I know that too. But that doesn‘t mean I can just let you do as you please, does it?”
“Playing the part of a guardian? You are far, far too late for that.”
“…I just don‘t want Lupus to be sad anymore. I think you feel the same way.”
Morgan‘s eyebrow twitched.
Johanna gently pushed Morgan's staff away. There was a small resistance, but the staff surprisingly moved back easily.
“Fine. Talk all you want.”
It seems Morgan is willing to talk. Having concluded so, Johanna led Morgan to the living room.
Because if they continued their squabble in front of the bedroom door, he, who was sleeping inside, might wake up.
He might have already woken up, but Johanna decided not to dwell on it.
Because Johanna‘s specialty wasn't to subdue opponents with overwhelming force or to devise cunning strategies with a brilliant mind.
Her talent was in speaking.
It was one of the only two talents that had allowed Johanna to rise to the position of Pope.
The other was her faith.
’Grant strength to your humblest servant.‘
Johanna opened her closed eyes.
Before her sat the most powerful fae who had lived for 6,000 years, and the leader of a nation.
Johanna had to persuade such a formidable figure with words.
She had her worries, but no hesitation.
’This is for Cael. I have to be bold now.‘
Johanna began her first words to Morgan, who was looking down at her as if to appraise her.
“…I believed in the deal. In the deal with Chaldea, it was agreed that in exchange for the Assassin summoned as a Servant, you would release the Cael who is living in the present.”
“Yes, I believe that was the case. But I've had a change of heart.”
Morgan let out a small laugh as if to say, did you really believe that?
“Why should I do as you say? You are weak, and I am strong. A deal is only established when both parties are on equal footing. Are you planning to throw a tantrum?”
“In that, Your Majesty Morgan is correct. Then why did Your Majesty not do so from the beginning?”
“A whim.”
Johanna tried to maintain eye contact with Morgan.
The eyes are the windows to the soul. The mouth can lie, but the eyes cannot.
’…Or so I‘ve thought until now.‘
Morgan‘s eyes were endlessly cold.
It was to the point of making one doubt if she had a human heart at all.
“What is it? Wiggle that short tongue of yours some more.”
“I do not believe Her Majesty Morgan is a fae so simple as to be dismissed with the mere word ’whim‘.”
“I do not know how long you have seen me to pretend to know me.”
“Because that is what the Cael who told me about Your Majesty was like.”
At that moment, Johanna squeezed her eyes shut from the powerful magical energy that Morgan unleashed.
The killing intent that filled the living room was emitted by Morgan alone. And all of that killing intent was directed at Johanna.
“We were discussing the deal with Chaldea. Was that not why you referred to me as Your Majesty? False Pope, why do you mention Cael‘s name?”
Morgan had been inclined to appraise Johanna, but that was merely a whim to ’see what she has to say.‘
To stubbornly call Cael ’Lupus‘ and then suddenly refer to him as ’Cael‘ now showed an impure intention all too clearly.
“You have succeeded in provoking me. Do you have a next plan? It would be meaningless even if you did. For your lowly head must have expected that I would continue to let you live.”
Ah, this is the end.
Anyone who saw this situation would say so.
Morgan‘s magical energy had already contemptuously torn through Johanna‘s Magic Resistance. It had completed its preparations to instantly shatter Johanna‘s Spirit Core.
The moment Johanna even tried to gather magical energy to prepare a spell for resistance, she would die instantly.
But Johanna, on the contrary, smiled.
On her lips was the same smile she had worn once before, just before a Singularity was about to collapse.
“…Yes. That is correct. Her Majesty Morgan will let me live.”
“How absurd.”
“Because you have no more chances left. You don‘t want to be hated by Cael for killing me, do you?”
Morgan could not immediately refute.
“…That is nothing but a delusion. Cael‘s hatred does not last long. Even if I were to kill you, that anger would be diluted within 10 years. You place too high a value on your own death.”
Morgan regained her composure and refuted again. But both Morgan and Johanna knew that it was a little too late.
“If that were the case, you should have come to find Cael immediately after defeating our Chaldea and Gilgamesh-san. But Her Majesty Morgan gave me time. Time to be with Cael. You must have thought it wouldn‘t be without consequences, so I tried to think of why.”
Due to the pressure from Morgan‘s magical energy, Johanna felt her body growing heavier.
It was a sensation like having a heavy stone placed on her chest.
But Johanna‘s eyes had regained their vitality.
Uncertain information, and the duty to protect the sleeping Lupus in the room. Morgan's hesitation and the completely collapsed 4th Holy Grail War.
Even in a chaotic and difficult situation, not losing hope. Johanna clearly understood that this was her job.
“Her Majesty Morgan failed to persuade Mr. Assassin. Is that right? That‘s why you had no choice but to break the deal.”
Morgan‘s expression contorted. A new emotion, not anger, surfaced on her face that had been as cold as ice.
“You didn‘t say a word even when I trespassed into the house where Your Majesty and Cael lived together, but the reason you suddenly came to kill me is precisely that. Because you don‘t want to lose your last remaining chance to me.”
“…It is not.”
“If that is the case, will you let me meet Mr. Assassin?”
Morgan could not do that.
Because the Assassin she had received through the deal with Chaldea,
Had already rejected Morgan and been eliminated a long time ago.