The Circe Deed Trap (1)

Inside the dimly-lit parish hall, its pristine oaken pews were as empty as its grandiose podium. High stained glass windows depicted many tales, all centered around a woman giving to desperate beggars, soothing the sickly, and fending off horrid demons in divine light. The red, blue, and orange glass glowed from the early morning's rise to wash over a trio of men's features, casting half their faces in conspiratorial shadows. Their voices carried in the still air.

“...And that concludes the message I was told to deliver.” spoke a dark-skinned man clad in an ashen-grey hood. He dipped into a polite bow to the other two standing opposite of him, who returned the gesture with equal grace. “Altheon, Barnabel, this task was assigned to you with the utmost confidence that you would succeed without issue. Please, do not circumvent such expectations.”

“Understood. We shall carry out the orders as described. Expect success within the day.” The taller of the two responded amiably, and the other murmured their agreements. Satisfied with their confidence, the dark-skinned man nodded and wished them luck as he took his leave.

After seeing the messenger off, the two remaining men convened around the folded sheet that had been handed to them at the start of the conversation.

“I see… A rather trifling task for ones such as we, wouldn’t you say brother?” The shorter, stouter of the pair, evidently Barnabel, nearly snorted as his eyes passed over the detailed instructions they were meant to follow.

“Certainly so,” Altheon agreed. “Frankly, I’m baffled that such a thing was not taken care of long ago. It’s almost as if we are being made to clean up Her loose ends.”

Barnabel put on an arrogant smile as he strutted a few steps away. “Better late than never, I would say. And besides, I see no better honor than to carry out Her will, even in the most minute of duties.”

“Yes, and to that end, what’s say we begin our preparations? It would seem the messenger was sent ahead of Her carriage so that he would arrive on this particular day. Our window of opportunity draws nearer as we speak.”

“Of course, brother. Leave any financial arrangements to me. Summon me once you’ve laid eyes on the target.”

“With pleasure.” Bearing malicious grins, the two men slipped out of the large double doors and into the steadily-forming crowds of the town.

-----

“All right! I’m off~!”

“We’ll be back by tonight. Be good, and don’t cause trouble for others, okay?”

“Haha, don’t worry. I’ll make sure Micah is on her best behavior today.”

“I was talking to you, actually.”

“Eh?! You meant me?!” Bernadetta’s eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as Henrietta ran through a simple set of rules for behaving properly in public. From the side, Josefine snickered to herself, eyeing the young child balanced on the woman’s arms and resting on her shoulder.

“Little Micah’s such a well-behaved cutie, there’s no way she’ll act up today!” she said. “Plus, she takes after me the most, so that practically guarantees that nothing will go wrong~”

“Ah. You’re right.” Henrietta blinked once, then turned to face Josefine with arms crossed. “It’s you I should be telling all of this to.”

“Ehh?! But you already do it every day~!”

As the trio of nuns fell into their usual bickering, Mikasa   no, she supposed it was about time she got used to calling herself Micah now   watched silently with a smile on her face. It had been two years since that night she awoke on the church steps, and she’d had more than enough time to grow accustomed to her new family and the world she was expected to live in for her second life.

First, through reading books and being taken on walks with Bernadetta through the town, she learned that the world she found herself in was called the Circle of Magi   Magi for short   due to the existence of four nations representing the four cardinal directions that form a ring around a center territory. She was currently situated in the western nation, Westra, in the small town of Halloway.

Secondly, by listening to the nuns’ conversations, she was able to learn that they belong to a religion called the Kindness of Nor, whose doctrine dictates that by staying devoted and keeping kindness in one’s heart, one will be rewarded by the goddess, Nor, for their efforts, and receive kindness in turn. Basically, it was a religion centered around the idea of being kind to others.

Bernadetta, her adoptive mother and the owner of the church, is the great granddaughter of the man who founded the religion, and she takes great pride in upholding it and the church he’d built over one-hundred years ago.

Unfortunately, the church isn’t doing so well, as a larger, more popular sect called the Disciples of Circe rose in popularity and influence over the years, and grew to become the world’s leading religion.

Along with that, with the recent peace agreement between the world’s nations, people simply had less and less reason to pledge their faith to the gods. And even when one did seek such things, they would rather flock to the massive, spiraling monastery than the smaller, poorer church that the nuns occupy.

With the decline of their donations came a lack of funds, and thus an inability to pay the nuns for their services. Most of them left to serve the more prosperous Circe, leaving only Henrietta   Bernadetta’s headstrong, but loyal childhood friend, Josefine   a local teenager (she’s only fourteen, much to Micah’s surprise) whose parents knew Bernadetta’s father before they passed away several years ago in an accident, and Brunhilde   a woman who, in her younger years, was good friends with Bernadetta’s grandfather and often helped out her great grandfather in the church.

Bernadetta herself lost her mother when she was very young, and has remained loyal to her father’s desire to uphold the church even in the face of their financial decline. Though she always urges the other nuns to leave her behind to find greater success, all of them have declined every time. Instead, Henrietta works a second job as a waitress in a popular tavern, and Josefine is often paid for her volunteer work at the local library reading to and tutoring children. Together, the two of them procure the main funds with which the nuns live off of, though it isn’t much.

It’s a rather pitiful situation, all in all.

The third and final thing is that, having kept her memories of her life as Mikasa, she could not simply accept a quiet life in this world. Day in and day out, thoughts of her younger brother Yuu would plague her mind as she slowly grew up. Not only that, but lingering questions about her meeting with God would often swirl around in her head, leading to many sleepless nights.

She knew that, at some point, the day would come when she sought out the answers to all of these questions she had. It would mean leaving behind this family that she’d spent so much time with, surely, but that eventuality was something she’d long accepted.

It was strange. Even after getting to know the nuns, she still couldn’t bring herself to say she was really attached to them. She sympathized with their plight and definitely felt a close connection to them, but her feelings never went farther than one would feel for characters in a novel. Try as she might to accept them as her new family, she still could never get the idea out of her mind that these people were from a world completely alien to her. They weren’t “real” to her. Sometimes, they hardly even felt human.

She could still remember the faces of her parents that had raised her with so much love and care, and of her adorable younger brother that had brought a light to her world she hadn’t known she’d needed until he was born. They were her real family. And the time spent living without them had left something of a hole in her heart   a hole that had grown wider with every passing day until she eventually came to the decision to leave by any means necessary.

However, as she learned more and more about the kinds of people and creatures Magi housed, it became increasingly clear to Micah that she would need to find a way to defend herself against the various threats that the world had to offer before setting out on her own. No, defense wasn’t enough; if she truly had any hope of overcoming any trial sent her way in the pursuit of the truth, she would also need the strength to crush anything and everything in her path.

And to that end, she needed to decide early on precisely what her goals in this world exactly were. With the inability to properly write at her age, she instead detailed it out in her head:

-Find Yuu

Why was Yuu hospitalized? Did he die too? Where was he now? Was he in this world somewhere, having been reincarnated just like her? Answering these questions were no doubt her top priority.

-Find God

And unless she was incredibly lucky, the only way to accomplish the first goal would be to locate the one who put her here in the first place, God. He surely knew more than he let on during their meeting, and thus finding a way to get in contact with him again was another priority. Even if she had to beat the answers out of him, she would find a way to do so.

And of course the first solution she considered was to commit suicide. If death was all it took to meet with God once more, then she was prepared to die countless times in order to do so. However, that idea was quickly shot down once she realized that there was a chance that it wouldn’t work.

Ever since her meeting with God, there was one thing that had been bothering her   one question in the back of her mind that she knew needed answering among all the others.

Why had her memories remained after her reincarnation? She’d been thus far suspending her disbelief regarding life after death and living in a new world, but that was the one thing she couldn’t understand no matter how much she tried to reason it out. It just made more logical sense to her that a reincarnated soul would lose their memories of their previous life before entering the next one. If not, then why hadn’t there been more people on Earth claiming to have memories of a previous life?

Because of the possibility that there were special circumstances she wasn’t aware of, she deemed it too risky to commit suicide. If it turned out that this first time was some sort of fluke, she would rather try and search for answers using her accumulated knowledge than risk losing her memories the second time around.

And that brought her back to the concern of a means to protect herself, and to make sure that nothing could stop her quest for the truth, not even God. It only took a short while of reading and studying books from the church in her own time (She was surprised   and very thankful   to find that everyone not only spoke Japanese, but the written language was the same) for her to find exactly the thing she needed.

Magic.

Sawatari Mikasa wasn’t exactly the skeptical type. Rather, she was the kind of person who would not have much trouble believing something if it was right before her eyes. She was almost too gullible, as her friend Nari would often put it. But this trait is what allowed her to comprehend the strange situation she’d found herself in after her death, and also what got her excited the moment she laid eyes on this fantastical word.

Magic. Sorcery. Witchcraft. In this world that was so different from the one she’d known all her life, magic existed.

And it sounded so. Damn. Cool.

It didn’t take her long to start practicing. The books on magic at the church were unfortunately few in number, but they were enough to give her an idea of what it was like. As it was described, the fundamentals of magic were based around the concept of an energy source called ‘mana’. Mana existed in all living things, and is said to be closely tied to their soul. Therefore the stronger and more experienced one’s soul is, the more potent and plentiful the pool of mana they would possess.

However, after hours spent trying to access her mana pool, she was only able to get a weak response. It seemed that she didn’t have much mana at all, despite the fact that her soul was technically seventeen years older than her current physical age. Still, she didn’t give up, and kept poking and prodding at her mana day after day in the hopes that something would happen.

And, in a way, something did. Just not in the way she expected.

Instead of feeling the usual response from within herself, out of nowhere she felt a strange pulse come from within her scarf   the same scarf that had been with her since her first moment in this new world. The same scarf that she refused to part with for fear of the dread and panic that would always come with being separated from it. The very same scarf that had been given to her by Yuu so long ago, and had become her most precious possession.

But, well, that was enough about all of that for now. In the time she’d spent reminiscing, the nuns had already finished squabbling and were finally ready to go about their business.

“Alright, we’re going now,” Henrietta announced as she and Josefine stepped through the front doors of the church.

“We’re headin’ out~!”

“Take care~” Bernadetta called after them, returning Josefine’s energetic waving with a small one of her own and matching her bright smile. Once the doors shut and their footsteps faded into the distance, she turned towards the rear of the chapel, where Brunhilde sat still as a rock in her usual chair.

“Madam Brunhilde, can you take her for a minute? I need to go get ready.” she asked. Though the woman didn’t answer verbally, there was a brief inclination of her head that told Bernadetta that it was alright, and so she carefully lowered Micah into her lap. “Thank you. I’ll just be a minute.”

“...” Silence descended upon the room after Bernadetta’s departure. Micah met the old woman’s gaze with a neutral stare of her own.

She’s doing it again. She’s giving me THAT look…

From Micah’s perspective, Brunhilde was the strangest of the nuns, and the relationship the two of them shared was certainly the most unique. Whenever she found herself in the company of the old nun, the entire time would be spent in complete silence, without a word uttered between the two. Micah of course got away with it by being young, but it was strange that in all this time, Brunhilde had never once tried to interact with her other than giving her this long stare, like her eyes were boring into her soul.

The kind of stare she was once again receiving right this instant.

Does she hate me or something? It seems like she only looks after me in order to inconvenience the others less, but I get the feeling she really doesn’t enjoy my company...

Sometimes Micah even felt as if Brunhilde could see right through her   that she wasn’t a two-year-old child and was in fact much older mentally. The idea was honestly kind of chiling, until she realized that such a thing was simply impossible any way you looked at it. Even so, she had no idea why the woman stared at her with such an odd look on her face.

Luckily, the weirdly tense situation didn’t last too long, as Bernadetta returned to take her back after a few minutes. “Thanks again. I’ll be taking Micah out for a walk before I go to the town hall, so I’ll probably be back sometime in the evening. Will you be alright by yourself?” she asked.

“I’ll be fine,” Brunhilde responded, turning to eye the bag hanging on Bernadetta’s shoulder. “You’re the one I should be worrying about. Those documents are our lifeline, and your last connection to your father, his father, and his father before him. Don’t lose them.”

“I... I won’t.” Bernadetta pouted slightly, them smiled as she adjusted Micah’s position on her arm. “Besides, Micah will be with me. Even if something goes wrong, she’ll help me right away. Isn’t that right?”

Micah decided to humor her and respond with adorable enthusiasm. “Ya!”

“Fufu~, see? Micah and I make the best team.”

“...” Once again, Brunhilde descended into silence. As Micah looked over, their eyes met momentarily before she quickly turned away again. “Yes, yes. Hurry along now, lest the job never get done.”

“Alright, I’ll be going then. Come on, babe.”

“Bai-bai, Grammy!”

“...”

She totally hates me…

-----

After exiting the church, the pair entered the town proper.

Though this was far from the first time she’d seen it, Micah couldn’t help but be swept up in the excitement of seeing a bustling fantasy town like she had every other time before. It was all so… fantastical, for lack of a better word. Wide, vibrant streets with passing horse-drawn wagons and people of all ages walking about, and colorful houses of varying heights and construction so unlike what she’d grown up around back in Japan that it was mystifying.

It was one thing to view this sort of scene behind a screen or through the words on a page, but actually being there, standing right in the center of it all, was so extraordinary that it left her speechless each and every time.

“Now then, Micah,” Bernadetta’s gentle voice cut through her mesmerized state and brought her back to her senses. “We still have some time before we have to go over to the town hall. Is there anywhere you want to go?”

“I’unno,” Micah answered simply with a small shrug.

For the record, even at age two, she was capable of forming full sentences perfectly fine thanks to her knowledge as Mikasa. However, the first time she tried speaking normally nearly ended in disaster.

One night at the church, Bernadetta had prepared a bottle to feed Micah in their room before bed, only to find her already fast asleep by the time she arrived. As she gently stirred her in order to wake her up, Micah momentarily forgot her situation and ended up acting as Mikasa would.

“Wake up, wake up, babe…~ One more bottle before you sleep, okay? Come on…~”

“Nngh… Fuu…”

“Bernadetta!”

“Ah?! H-Henrietta?!”

“What in the world do you think you’re doing waking a sleeping child?!”

“H-Henrietta, shh, shh~! I don’t want to startle her…”

“I-I wasn’t even yelling that loud though. M-More importantly-!”

“Henriettaaaa~!”

“Fuaaaa~ Why is it so noisy…?”

“I’m just trying to tell you-... eh?”

“Eh...”

“...???”

What? Why’d everyone get so silent all of a sudden? Come to think of it, where the heck even am… I…

…

…

SHIT.

“...Bernadetta.”

“...Henrietta.”

“You heard it too, right?”

“...I did.”

Fucking hell, how could I have been so careless?! Stupid stupid stupid, Mikasa! W-W-W-What should I do?! They’re gonna find out-

“Josefine, where are you hiding? This kind of prank isn’t funny, you know!”

“She’s right, Josefine. What if you scared poor Micah? Please, come on out.”

“.........”

As the two nuns began to search the room for the non-present Josefine (who would have been greatly offended had she known they’d mistaken Micah’s voice for her own), Micah could only stare in awed silence at the scene akin to a comedy skit taking place in her bedroom.

In the end, she let out a small relieved sigh.

Safe. Thank goodness these guys are morons. Sorry Mom, but thank you. The stupidity of you and your friend has saved me this time.

Ever since that day, she’d been extra careful about speaking normally around others, and even spent time practicing proper baby-talk during the periods where Bernadetta would leave her by herself while she tended to the church and Brunhilde. Quietly, of course.

“Then how about we take a walk around the marketplace? I’m sure we’ll find something to do if we look around there.” Bernadetta offered. Excited at the prospect of going to that wonderful place again, Micah nodded enthusiastically.

“Ya! Ya!”

“Hee hee, alright then.”

It was only a small walk from the church   which sat somewhat closer to the outskirts of town   to Halloway’s boisterous marketplace. Being a trade town for as much as it was known for its religious influence, one could say that this was where the “magic” happened. Merchants and tradesmen littered the stalls swapping wares and coin, while butchers and food vendors boldly shouted for passersby to try new shipments and products. The moment the nun-child duo set foot at the entrance, voices began calling out one by one.

“Bernadetta! Out shopping today, are we? How about some fish?” called a burly man with a wide grin.

“Ah, no thank you, Mister Reder. Henrietta and Josefine will be through here later today to get groceries. I’m just taking Micah for a walk today.”

“That so? Well be careful, this place can get real busy now and then. Wouldn’t want Little Micah to get overwhelmed now! Hahaha!”

“Yes, you’re right. I’ll be sure to avoid the busier areas. Good luck with your sales today.” Bernadetta offered a meek smile as she kept on her way.

“Ah, Bernadetta! Josefine’s not with you? I wanted to thank her again for teaching my Fromm math the other day. Used to be the only adding he could do was meat to stew, but my boy’s been counting multiples nonstop since he got home yesterday!”

“That’s wonderful, Mrs. Luzia! I’ll be sure to give Josefine your thanks when I see her.”

“I’d appreciate that. And here, on the house.”

Bernadetta’s eyes widened as the woman handed over an elaborately-designed tapestry. “U-Um, this looks really expensive. I-I don’t think we can-”

Her concerns were silenced with a wave of the woman’s hand. “Just take it. Put it in Josefine’s room, to remind her of the old bag she made cry when her son came home saying he learned math.”

“Ahh… Thank you.” Bernadetta reached in to take the item, staring in wonder at the beautiful design completely unbefitting of the old church. “I’m sure she’ll love it.”

“Followin’ Nor’s helped me more than Circe ever did, that’s for sure. Don’t forget that you ladies got a friend in old Mrs. Luzia! See you later, hon.”

“Yes, goodbye...” It seemed Bernadetta was the one getting overwhelmed, Micah noted, as she practically stumbled through the marketplace while being greeted by various vendors and salespeople, most of which offered free gifts on behalf of either Henrietta or Josefine, and even a few for Micah herself.

By the end of the several-hour-long experience, she was heaving under the strain of baskets of food, vases, pots, and enough paintings to replace every mural in the church.

“Haa… Haa… Since… since when have we been this popular…?” Bernadetta coughed. “People have never… been this generous before… Sorry, I need to sit down…”

As she found an empty bench and offloaded all of the items she’d gathered, the poor woman collapsed onto the seat for a break. Micah, who’d helped carry a few of the things in exchange for taking up one of her arms, gave her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.

A lot of that stuff wasn’t completely useful, but it’s clear that the nuns aren’t disliked despite their situation. Plus they do a lot of good for Halloway, so I can see why people like them.

She decided to give her mother some time to rest and wiggled out of her grip to place her two tiny feet onto the road. Immediately, she wobbled and fell on her bottom. Admittedly, she hadn’t gotten much time to practice walking due to Bernadetta’s insistence to carry her everywhere she went, even from one end of a room to another. She appreciated having a mother that showed such consideration for her child, but the woman came off as a tad overbearing at times… most of the time.

...Now that she thought about it, her family   her real family from Earth   would often say the same thing to her about her treatment of Yuu. But… but there’s no way she was this bad about it, right? Right?

A sudden shout broke her train of thought. It was the call of a man in front of what looked like a miniature stage set. In his hands were various puppets, but they were too far to really make any detail out. But it seemed that he was calling for adults to bring their children and gather ‘round for some kind of show he was about to put on.

...I-It wasn’t because she was a child that she was interested in going. She was just curious to see what all the commotion was about, that was all.

“Ma-ma! Ma-ma!” She tugged at her mother’s pant leg and pointed at the steadily growing crowd of children and adults carrying infants both older and younger than herself. “Go, see!”

“You- you want to go see the puppet show…?” Bernadetta still looked exhausted, but Micah continued pulling on her until she eventually stood up. “But, what about all of these things we just got?”

“No, steal! No, steal! Come!” She was actually fairly certain someone would steal it if they left it unattended for long enough, but most of it was useless anyway so she continued to pull Bernadetta along. Finally, she let out a small sigh of resignation and scooped her up to walk her over to the show.

“Fine, let’s go take a look. But we’ll watch from the back, okay? I’m not much of a fan of crowds myself, and I don’t want you to be scared of all the people.”

“Okee~!” Replying with impeccably-practiced baby-talk, she climbed up to sit on Bernadetta’s shoulder as they arrived at the back of the crowd just in time to hear the start of the show.

“I am Elmar, the traveling Talespinner! From the city streets of Regalia to the remote village of Avalon, from the fishing town Zenith to the isolated Jochen, I travel the four nations in order to tell stories, legends, myths and epics to children of all ages, and I don’t accept a silver in return! Gather ‘round, gather ‘round children of Halloway, for I have quite a tale to tell today!”

The crowd buzzed with excitement, and even Micah couldn’t deny the anticipation coursing through her at the thought of seeing one of the more entertaining things in her lifetime on Magi thus far. Because honestly, being a baby was quite boring most of the time.

“This tale is of a group many of you have likely heard of before. The Five Legendary Heroes!” Elmar seemed to fill each and every word with energy, as he had the children practically hanging off everything he said. Once again, they erupted into a jovial cacophony at the revelation of the tale’s subject.

Micah had heard of the “Five Legendary Heroes” before. They were mentioned in a book she’d skimmed in the church while researching magic, which described the existence of Heroes and an academy that trained them into warriors that use their talents for magic, martial arts, weaponry, or any combination of the three in order to protect the innocent and the world at large from threats of any kind.

Of the many different brave and powerful Heroes, five in particular stood far above the rest.

“The second-youngest female practitioner of magic in the noble Brightwind family, known to the world as the strongest support mage of her generation, Wilhelmina Brightwind!” Elmar introduced the first puppet, bearing the likeness of a young woman with long, red hair and deep blue eyes. Her outfit consisted of a white button-up shirt covered by a green military jacket and a matching green skirt reaching her mid-thigh. Several small colors seemingly represented badges pinned to one side near the chest area.

Though the expression on the puppet seemed to be adjustable, there was a hardness to her neutral gaze, giving her the look of a no-nonsense woman. But due to having her likeness plastered on a puppet meant for children, she looked quite cute instead. Micah wondered if the real Wilhelmina had such pinchably adorable puffed-up cheeks.

After giving all of the children a good view, Elmar set the Wilhelmina puppet aside and held up the next one. “Known as the Shadow, master of the Soundless Slice technique, and bearing a weapon never before seen in this world until her time, the infamous Eviscerator blade! The mysterious warrior known only by the name Shimo!”

This one was almost the opposite of the last one, so full of vibrant colors. Instead, there were dark colors everywhere, from the straight black hair to the dark red robe that covered her entire body all the way down to her open-toed sandals, and finally to the black muffler that ran down the length of her back and concealed most of the lower half of her face.

“Ohh~ She’s quite pretty isn’t she?” Bernadetta commented. “She seems a bit scary though…”

But what caught Micah’s attention more than her outfit, the cut bangs across her forehead, or the stern, almost threatening expression on her distinctly asian features, was the sewn-on accessory resting on her hip.

Though it was miniature to match the puppet’s size, it looked chillingly similar to a popular weapon from her homeland.

The famous Japanese long sword.

A katana.

Was it just a coincidence? Elmar said it was never before seen in Magi until her time, but why had he called it the ‘Eviscerator’? Did they not know it was a katana? Or was there some other reason?

Elmar didn’t give her time to consider the questions further, as he was already gesturing to the next puppet. “Perhaps just as, if not more mysterious is the cloaked woman that serves as the party’s attack mage. With a hood and mask to hide her identity and powerful magic rivaling that of Brightwind’s Lennart and even the patriarch himself, Achill! The kind stranger said to have previously wandered the Circle for decades gathering knowledge and power, draped in darkness as much as she is in mystery, the Black Mask, Claire!”

Many of the children let out little ‘Ooh!’s at the sight of this one. It seemed she was a favorite.

‘Claire’ as she was called seemed to be a tall figure wearing a long black cloak that ran down to cover thick boots. At the end of her sleeves were matching gloves, and her most notable feature, the designless face mask hiding all but her grey eyes through two narrow holes, was also pitch black in color.

She… seemed to be a fan of the color black.

The cloak also had a hood which covered the top of her head, but strands of silvery-white hair still fluttered out from the sides, reaching to just above her waist. With how heavily-dressed she seemed, it was honestly a wonder how they even knew she was female, until Micah realized that her voice would likely have given her away.

Decades… How old was she?

“And now we have the newest member to join the ranks of the legends. Extremely popular for her cute and childlike appearance yet possessing extremely unique magic, including a spell never before thought possible, [Teleportation]! Some even say she's capable of using time magic, which has been a myth in Magi for centuries, and others still that she’s not even human in the first place! Here’s the Living Doll, Aaia!”

The next puppet brought out was the smallest by far, looking barely bigger than a sponge in Elmar’s hand. Wearing a large, frilly blue dress of gothic lolita design with sleeves that ran longer than her own arms if the empty holes were anything to go by, Micah couldn’t help but laugh at the prospect that this world even had a loli, and a strong one at that, if Elmar’s explanation was anything to go by.

Her skin was pale, unnaturally so, and her eyes seemed to lack the same light in them as the others. It may have just been the lack of detail on the puppet, but Aaia really did seem to be inhuman. Rather, she looked more like a porcelain doll, which seemed to have garnered her apparent namesake. Other than that, Micah noted that her entire outfit seemed to be based around the color blue, save for her matching violet hair and eyes.

Something about the stoic, lifeless look to her expression gave Micah chills, as well as a slight sense of déjà vu. Had she seen this girl somewhere on Earth? Her eyes seemed somewhat familiar…

And wait a minute. I’m noticing a pattern here. They’re the Five Legendary Heroes, but so far they’ve all been female. Was this generation of magic just more potent in women? Most of the famous Heroes I’d read about were male, so I kind of assumed it’d be the same here, but...

The children, who were already so captivated by the show thus far, exploded in joy as Elmar displayed the final puppet. “And last but not least, the leader of the Five Legendary Heroes. Idolized as the epitome of a true Hero, with a heart of gold and a smile that could brighten even the sun. Known for his meek, caring temperament, but his ferocity on the battlefield, offering a hand to his allies and a sword to his enemies, the strongest Hero in the four nations, Alistaire!”

“Ah…” Micah’s eyes widened slightly as Elmar displayed the puppet of the man known as the World Hero, Alistaire. When she read a bit about him in the book, she hadn’t been too impressed by what she saw. Sure he was widely regarded as the strongest Hero in the world at just twenty-five years old, and one of the kindest men known to all of the Circle, but it all seemed so laughably overdone that she didn’t take it too seriously.

Seeing his design on the puppet didn’t do much to change her opinion. He was the exact image of a typical fantasy manga protagonist, with a short mop of black hair on his head, friendly black eyes, and a kind smile that one could find plastered on any cover art featuring an average Japanese student.

And yet, for some reason, seeing that smile sent her heart racing.

It was just a puppet, but Micah felt as if she could see the actual person through its button eyes and felt skin. The image of him holding his hand out, looking down with the gentlest smile meant just for her…

“Are you alright, Micah?” Bernadetta asked worriedly. “You look a bit flush. Is the crowd too much after all? Want to go home?”

“Eh?! A-Ah, uh, um-” Micah stammered nervously at the realization that her cheeks had heated up while she'd been lost in her own fantasy. She raised her hands to cup them, trying to hide them from view. “N-No, I’m- I mean, I okay, Mommy.”

“Are you sure? There’s no need to be strong…”

As thoughts of Alistaire continued to swim through her mind, she pulled the scarf over her nose and buried her quickly-reddening face in it. “M… Mhm…”

H-Holy crap… Am I really crushing on someone I’ve never even met, through a PUPPET?! I must be out of my mind, especially since I’ve never really had crushes much growing up.

Her interest in sports kept Mikasa occupied for most of her time, setting aside the fact that it was considered a boyish interest in the first place. Though it allowed her to easily talk to both boys and girls, she never really developed romantic interest in those around her, and any crushes she did have were usually toward the athletes she watched on television or at live games when she was really young.

Any chance of her becoming romantically attracted to someone all but vanished when Yuu was born. From then on, he became not just the most important boy in her life, but the most important person in her life. No man could hope to compete with him for a place in her heart, for it was reserved for him and him alone.

B-But… This guy is like, REALLY cute for some reason... Damn it, me. Why this idiot, with a face you can find anywhere…

Finally, Elmar finished introducing all of the puppets, and as he gathered them up, his story began. “This tale is of one of the many great adventures the Five Legendary Heroes embarked on. In the Eastran town of Konban, our Heroes…”

Hearing Elmar’s voice begin to fade, Micah peeked her eyes out from beneath the scarf she was pressing against her face with both hands to hide her blush. “Eh? Wha…”

“You don’t look well at all, so I’m taking you home,” Bernadetta said sternly as she began picking up the items she’d left on the bench. “If you get sick, Henrietta will yell at both of us and we’ll have to pay for a visit to the clinic. Better safe than sorry.”

“No, no!” The shock of her mother’s decision brought her back to her senses, and she quickly shot up to protest. “I fine, Mommy, I fine! See, see! I wan’ stay!”

“No, Micah. This is for your own good. Besides, I have to drop these things off at the church, so we’ll be going back either way.”

Damn it, not back to that boring place again…! How can I convince her to let me stay? How…

Then she remembered she was a child. And children have one hell of an annoying trick to get their way.

“Uu… Uuu…~” She shivered and puffed out her lower lip in preparation for the eruption of a mood swing that would make any parent pale.

And pale Bernadetta did. “W-Wait, wait Micah! Please don’t cry! I-I’m just trying to do what’s best for you!”

“...Wan’, stay.”

“I-I really think it’s better if you rest at the church…”

“UUUUUUU-”

“Okay, okay!” Bernadetta finally relented. “You can come with me to the town hall after I drop these things off. But we’re buying some medicine on the way home, just to be safe. Please, no tantrums once we get there,” she said with a defeated pout.

“Ya! I, good~!”

Sorry for taking advantage of your biggest weakness, Mom. But it’s not everyday that I get to go out like this. I don’t want it to end so soon.

Sometimes she really did wonder if someone as big of a pushover towards children as Bernadetta was really fit to be a mother. She was just glad the woman had Henrietta to watch out for her, though she was more than glad Henrietta hadn’t been there at that particular moment.

-----

“That was her, yes?” Barnabel raised an eyebrow as he and Altheon watched the nun walk off a child in her arms.

“Indeed it was, brother. I would not call you over if there was any doubt.”

“I see. And did you confirm our target?”

“Yes. Though there were too many people around for me to take any real risks, I briefly glanced through her belongings as she was preoccupied and found that what we seek is in her possession.”

“Excellent work, brother. As expected of someone with your talents.”

“Haha, too much flattery as always with you. And what of your preparations? All of this will have been for naught if she arrives before you’ve finished.”

“Oh, that? Worry not, my end of things has been long taken care of. You will know the time to strike when you see it, brother.”

“And until then, we wait.”