Chapter 57: The First Failure Does Not Mean Otherwise (Patreon)

Beatrice, hearing this, just slowly shook her head. "Beatrice refuses."

"Quite blunt, aren't we..." Pandora nodded at that. "And the reason?"

But Beatrice hopped down off the step stool. "You know exactly what the reason is, don't you."

"I see. Because of Echidna, then..."

"..."

"So what would it take for you to agree?"

"Use your Authority... to... bring Mother back to life!"

At those words, Pandora blinked, caught off guard. "In theory, that's possible, but... things might still end up unfolding the way they were always going to."

That left Beatrice puzzled. "What makes you say that?"

After all, wasn't Pandora's Authority Reality Rewrite?

Pandora shook her head at that. "You see, everything in this world runs on cause and effect. Every effect has a preceding, necessary condition — its cause. And from that, it follows that cause and effect are inseparably bound together."

It sounded profound at first, but in truth...

Beatrice: "What does that have to do with bringing her back to life?"

This woman always loved dragging in something completely unrelated just to lead up to some strange theory...

Pandora just let out a sigh. "It has everything to do with it. Because — if she were brought back, you'd have to live through another hundred years of loneliness all over again. And in the end, what she'd choose... isn't even certain."

"L-liar!"

"The cause-and-effect between them is a rope that can't be cut. It binds whatever stands at either end tightly together. So if she were revived, the cause would change — and naturally, the effect would change right along with it."

"Then what about you erasing the fact of your own death!"

"Simple enough. I just nullified every attack ever made against me — which effectively erased the fact that I was ever attacked at all. So the result, my death, naturally stopped existing too."

"..."

That left Beatrice with nothing to say.

Seeing that, Pandora picked up her map and walked to the door with a helpless little sigh. "I'll wait for you outside..."

It seemed Beatrice needed some time to process the "information" she'd just been handed.

Yes — Pandora had told her, plainly, the drawback built into her own Authority.

It was her own way of showing that she could be trusted.

Then she simply opened the door and walked out.

Beyond the door was a room that looked like some kind of office — a desk, a chair, and a bookshelf standing in the corner.

[So what's kept in this bookshelf, then?]

After all, the sheer volume and breadth of knowledge in Beatrice's own library was already more than enough — there was no need for a separate collection.

Of course, she wasn't about to go rifling through it either.

Shaking off anything unrelated to the current "main plot," she sat down on the windowsill nearby.

The window here had no security bars of any kind — you could simply open it and fly straight out with magic.

After opening the window —

"So there are maids here, huh..."

Watching a maid in uniform working by the flowerbed outside, Pandora felt a flicker of surprise.

She still remembered that Roswaal himself had come to open the door for her when she'd first arrived.

Then again, maybe it just wasn't appropriate for a maid to answer the door, given the demihumans involved...

Not long after that —

"Looks like you've got your answer, then."

Pandora said with a smile, watching Beatrice emerge through the door of the Forbidden Library.

Beatrice only glanced at her. "Beatrice could never accept an invitation from the likes of you. Not on any account..."

"Is that so..."

"First — Beatrice hates you, and nothing you say is going to change that fact. Second — Beatrice is an elf who honors her contracts."

At that moment, Beatrice seemed less cold than simply numb.

Whether the first point was true or not, Pandora couldn't quite tell — but the second one, without a doubt, was.

At this, Pandora clasped her hands behind her back out of habit and said with a shake of her head, "A contract — what a noble word. A symbol of trust. A beautiful hope."

"You... what are you trying to say?" That left Beatrice at a loss.

"What am I trying to say? Hmm... that's actually a hard question to answer..."

"..."

"If I had to put it into words, I'd say — someday, you might just be freed from that contract."

"You... what do you know?!"

"Well, what I know isn't really the point. What matters is — I think... the first attempt failed."

Pandora shook her head, looking at Beatrice standing a short distance away.

Then, under Beatrice's baffled gaze, she walked toward the door.

Just as her hand closed around the doorknob —

"What exactly did you come here for?"

Beatrice's voice came again from behind her.

She hadn't come looking for trouble, and she wasn't here to "wreck" anything — was it really just to invite her along on some so-called trip?

Pandora spread her hands at that. "My purpose — I've already told you. If you don't believe me, then I'll just hope you can treat what I said as one of those deliberate blank spaces an author leaves in a story."

Beatrice: "..."

"Well then — I hope that by the time we meet again, you'll have thought it all through and come to see me a little differently..."

Pandora paused for a moment as she said this.

"One last thing, before I go. Contrary to what you said earlier about the Witch Cult being on the verge of collapse — I believe that before long, the Witch Cult will develop exactly as I intend, steadily and right on schedule, and become the most flourishing organization in the world."

Hearing this, Beatrice lowered her head and fell silent — because the Pandora standing before her matched neither what Mother had told her nor what the books recorded. Not in the slightest...

Seeing Pandora open the door, Beatrice let out a sigh. "Hey — you left your coin pouch..."

"No need. Just consider that compensation for the mayonnaise I never brought you. I'll use that money to take you shopping for some, next time. Besides — lugging that thing around is a hassle."

Pandora said, waving her hand.

She could swear this was the first time in her life she'd ever found having money to be a bother...

Just as Pandora was about to close the door, Beatrice suddenly spoke up. "So what do you plan on doing now?"

That caught Pandora off guard for a moment, before she answered, "Probably going to go waste some time, all by myself."

[Author's Note: Thanks to reader "18519—" for the 100 VIP-point tip!]

[Author's Note: Author-kun here — I'll be going on the paid shelf soon, so please, give me your first subscriptions! If it ends up like my other book, with fewer than 10 subscriptions a chapter, I might just start questioning my whole existence (ToT)!]