Wherever you are in danger, I will be there to save you

Julis went to an abandoned building in the redevelopment area.

Twilight gloom reigned over the partially demolished edifice. Fragmentary walls and floors created an illusion of open space, but the piles of debris made for numerous blind spots.

Undaunted, she walked farther into the building. Her face was grim as she stepped steadily onward through the uncanny shadows projected by the lowering sun.

As soon as she had set foot into the back of the plot, debit fell from an upper story whose floor no longer exited—falling right toward where she stood. It was more than enough material to crush a girl.

"Burst into bloom...," she murmured, without even looking up. "Red Crown."

A five-sided flower materialized to shield her, like an umbrella made of flame, and repelled every piece of the falling debris.

"You must know by now that it will take more than that to beat me. Hurry up and show yourselves already! Don't waste my time!"

The mood floated dimly beyond the gaping holes in the structure. Steel reinforcement bars crashed into the floor, and a lone boy emerged from the clouds of dust.

"My apologies. That didn't even make for a good pregame show." The thin boy bowed theoretically."

"...who are you?"

"..."

"SILAS NORNAN! THAT'S MY NAME! DID YOU FORGET ABOUT ME?"

"Sorry, I don't know." Julis shook her head, unlike in the original, where Lester kept pestering her. She was no longer closer to Amagiri, and she was close to Tamazuki. When she was with Tamazuki, Lester didn't dare to approach them since Lester knew once he got close, he would just be beaten.

Tamazuki wasn't a pushover like Amagiri, so Lester's courage was rather small.

However, because of this, Julis's attacker was rather desperate since it made it hard for him to attack Julis. Still, even so, he was someone who often appeared before the princess, yet how dare this girl forget about him?

"I am the one who always follows Lester."

"Oh, right! I remember you." Julis nodded and remembered that Lester had two followers, and one of them was this guy. "So, where is the rest?" She didn't think this weak boy could do anything to her, so this boy shouldn't be alone. Still,

"As expected, you are so arrogant, princess, but you don't need to worry; this time, you won't be alone."

But then, they didn't immediately fight each other. Instead, they talked as if they were negotiating since what Silas wanted was just money, so if he could make Julis give up on participating in the Festa, then everything was good, but how could she give up? Especially when she was sure about her victory.

But suddenly...

"Just what the hell is going on here, Silas?!"

"—Lester?" Julis was startled at the sight of Lester MacPhail stomping into the scene, causing her to be ready to fight, but she lowered her stance when she understood Lester's anger was directed at Silas.

"Hello, Lester. I have been waiting for you."

"You said Julis agreed to duel with me, so I rushed over here, but this... is this true? Are you the one who attacked Julis? How dare you sell out your fellow students?!"

"Fellow students? You must be joking!"

The two fought, bickering with each other as Silas told them the principle of his life and his plan to end them. He was going to take down Julis by using Lester as a scapegoat, hoping they would follow his plan faithfully. However, Lester and Julis thought that this guy was crazy and stupid.

"Are you an idiot? Why would I agree to that?"

"Oh, no need to worry. If the two of you can't speak, I can write whatever script I want to fit my needs. Well, I suppose the easiest thing would be to say that you dueled so fiercely that it resulted in a deadly draw.'

At that, Lester's fuse blew completely. "That's a laugh. Do you think you can shut me up with your puny powers? Let's see if you can try." He drew his Lux activator, and the weapon that took shape was an enormous battle ax as large as his frame—the Bardiche-Leo.

"Lester, don't rush into combat. We don't know what he has up his sleeve. Isn't he Dante?" Julis hardly thought of Lester as a friend, but she wasn't about to abandon him in a situation like this.

"Yeah, his power is telekinesis," Lester scoffed. "It's probably all he can do to toss around some rubble. Anyway, Juils—you can stay out of this!" Before he had even finished the sentence, he launched at Silar and swung his crescent-shaped ax, its blade of light howling through the hair. "Go to hell! What the—!?"

At that instant, a giant clad in black fell from the hole in the ceiling to insert himself between Lester and his opponent and stopped his attack—with its bare hands.

Lester growled as he strained to push his axe forward, channeling all his might into it, but the giant did not budge an inch. Lester, who had thought that except for Tamazuki, no one was his opponent physically, was stunned. Even as he stated in surprise, he had enough presence of mind to jump back.

"Oh, I get it," he spat. "So this is your friend?"

"Friend?" Silas gave a condescending chuckle. "Don't be silly." he snapped his fingers, and two more men clad in black appeared from the shadows. "These are my cute, adorable dolls."

The men shed their black robes, revealing themselves to be just that—dolls. Their cases had indentations that suggested eyes but no noses or mouths. In fact, they were mostly featureless. They bore a slight resemblance to ball-jointed mannequins, only far more eerie.

"Battle Puppets...?" Julis observed calmly.

Remote-controlled puppets could be used in combat but require dedicated facilities for operation, and Julis found it unlikely in the extreme that Silas could build such a large-scale infrastructure. Not impossible per so, but to do so in Asterisk while managing to keep it a secret would be as close as impossible as one could get.

"I'd rather you didn't compare them to such unrefined toys," said Silas. "My beauties have no machinery whatsoever."

'So how can they move?' But right before their eyes, the dolls moved as smoothly as people.

"So, this is your power." Julis finally understood why she could never sense the presence of the attackers until the very last moment. It was simply because they were inorganic. They had no presence, no fighting spirit there for her to sense.

"All this time, you were hiding it from me?!" Lester shouted. "You said that it was the best thing you could do to manipulate a knife."

"You actually believed that?!" Silar burst into laughter. "Oh, forgive me. But think about it. What kind of fool tips his hand to his enemies?"

Yet, even so, Julis and Lester didn't think that they would lose. Even if those dolls were special and made with a special feature, their numbers were limited, and this was what they thought, but. their expression quickly turned into incredulity, surprise, then fear.

They were not looking at ten dolls or even twenty. It was far more than that.

"It seems that one or two isn't enough, so I'll give you more. What do you think? The maximum number of dolls I can control at one time is one hundred and twenty-eight."

"A hundred and twenty-eight..." Despair spread over Lester's face.

Julis was also anxious and quickly pressed the device into her pocket. It was something given by Tamazuki. Even though she didn't really need it, he decided to give it to her.

'Tamazuki...'

Being surrounded by 128 dolls, Lester and Julis weren't able to do anything.

Lester was the first to lose, having been beaten before he passed out.

Silas didn't intend to kill Lester since he wanted to put all the blame on Lester, and it was the same case with Julis.

"Now, it's your turn, Princess."

Julis showed his last struggle and created an enormous dragon made of flame that tore through the circle of the dolls. However, her struggle was meaningless. Her opponents were dolls and weren't human. They could be sacrificed anytime. Even if they were burnt or destroyed, it didn't matter. By now, she was pinned by several dolls on the ground. They held her in a place as one doll held a giant battle-axe, ready to end her.

"Now, it's a farewell, Princess."

Julis squeezed her eyes shut as she thought that everything was over, yet suddenly she felt a familiar feeling. Her body was held by a strong yet gentle arm.

"Tamazuki...?"

"Sorry I am late."

Hearing that voice, Jilis opened her eyes to see the young man who had stolen her girlhood. His figure held a Japanese katana of pure white made entirely of heat. Her eyes were moist, but she didn't want to appear weak in front of him.

"...you are late."

Yet, knowing that he was by her side, she knew that everything was going to be alright.

"Sorry, sorry. It's hard to find this place."

Then, as he came, all the dolls, even the one with the battle axe, crashed to the ground before melting and becoming junk.