Mendacium Speculorum

Chapter 11: Deserted

I have waited for you, and I didn't even realize it.

Willard H. Wright didn't feel comfortable waking up next to the second ranking witch in the Senate, who was practically hugging the poor boy like he was some sort of bolster.

Sure, he understood that she was somewhat whimsical, but...he didn't realize that she was that ditzy, drowsy and silly. Yes, silly. He called her silly. He had NO choice but to call her silly, because as redundant as he was at that moment, it was the agonizing fact.. What type of witch would sleep-talk about burning four Heavenly departments just because none of those departments would give her marshmallows?

Lady Hemera, of course.

And to top it off; she drools on her pillow!

Her Reader didn't even come back. Irritably, Will tried to pry himself out from Hemera's grasp, and when he managed to do so, he wrote a note of thanks to the witch and left as quietly as he could. He needed to tell Beatrice the news as quickly as possible, but he had to be discreet about it as well. Navigating himself through the crowd of witches, Readers and demons, Will finally found his way to Beatrice's room, to which he found Dlanor at the door already.

"You're LATE," Dlanor merely said as she was about to turn the doorknob.

"You're late too," Will scoffed. "Woke up late?"

Dlanor nodded her head demurely. "I didn't have time to EAT. I hope Lady Beatrice would give us something to eat for BREAKFAST."

"She'll have to, because I've got some news." Will opened the door in Dlanor's stead, to which he was rather shocked to find Beatrice and Ronove pondering over Lambdadelta's latest letter. They have been at it for hours without rest, and the two Heavenly children walked in, bowing simultaneously before Beatrice and Ronove. Beatrice looked up to see the children, to which Will stepped up first, boldly announcing that he had some important news for them.

"Dlanor, close the door and lock it," Will instructed. The girl closed the door quietly, locked it and nodded.

"It is LOCKED. You may SPEAK." Dlanor knew her friend well enough to predict his intentions, and Will cleared his throat. Beatrice, however, looked incredibly worried, but she tried to stomach down her fears.

"W-What is it, Will?" she asked, trembling a little. "What is it that you want to tell us?"

Will straightened up and sighed. "I went to see Lady Hemera yesterday. About...the actual conspiracy."

At that, Beatrice, Ronove and Dlanor looked at Will with horrified faces. It was unthinkable to even intrude upon Lady Hemera to ask about such a thing! And Will went off, doing just that without even telling either of them. Actually, if he DID tell them, they would do everything in their power to prevent him from disgracing himself and so on, so forth.

"Y-You did wha-" Beatrice was about to exclaim, but Dlanor looked at the Endless Witch rather impatiently, prompting her to keep quiet.

"Here's what I got," Will began. He then explained everything that Lady Hemera had told him, from start to finish. It took quite some time for the three of them to digest what he was saying, but at the end, they eventually understood everything. Will looked at Beatrice and Ronove, as if he was expecting an answer or a decision to the entire thing.

"A...personification witch," Beatrice slowly nodded her head, as if confirming Will's previous words. "Yes...It makes sense somewhat now..."

Ronove had a troubled look on his face. "What makes sense at the moment, Lady Beatrice?"

"To carry out her plans," Beatrice spoke in a rather hushed voice, referring to Featherine, "she needs Lady Lambdadelta's certainty. That explains it...!"

"But the game that Lady Lambdadelta is currently in..." Ronove spoke what was on his mind. "Wasn't it...the game that the previous opponent had played with Lady Aurora? If so...would there be a possibility that Lady Lambdadelta would be trapped inside as well?"

Dlanor looked crestfallen. "I do not want that to HAPPEN."

Beatrice got up, took the letter which had Lambdadelta's cursive handwriting and burned it with magic. Just as she had done with the previous letter. There was no need to read it, since she could roughly understand and remember what it had said. Walking to the door, she took a deep breath, looked at the three people in her room and had a serious frown on her face.

"We have to do something," Beatrice decided. "We can't keep saying that we'll do things without actually doing them."

"What do you plan to do?" Ronove asked, adjusting his monocle worriedly. Whenever Beatrice was adamant on something, there was no turning back.

And Beatrice was planning on something dangerous.

"We have no choice. I'm sorry. We have to do everything we can to help Lady Lambdadelta." With that, she looked at the two Heavenly children, to which Will stepped forward and grinned, folding up his sleeves. Dlanor adjusted her hat and nodded her head, tugging at Ronove's coat.

"We'll help," Will declared. "We're old enough to do this."

Dlanor agreed. "We will HELP. Please rely on US."

They knew that they had to do this. No one else would. To be honest, they didn't know who was at their side, and who was not. It was best to deem every single person in the Senate against them, to the slight exception of Lady Hemera and her Reader, Natalie. There was a large maybe on their loyalties, and Beatrice knew that if no one does anything, they might be doomed.

They might lose their minds to that script-writer of a witch.

"What are you going to do?" Ronove asked, to which Beatrice smiled rather mischievously. She adjusted her hat, and giggled a little, signifying that she was planning. Rather, she already had the plans in her head.

"A little something~" Beatrice smiled cheekily.

Like...oh, a little eavesdropping on the possible people who claim that there's no conspiracy?

"The last time we will see each other?!" Wright of the SSVD thundered, refusing to accept that his friend would sacrifice his life as a last resort.

Two of the revered creators of the Decalogue and the Commandments of the mystery genre refused to back down in their standings. Wright simply, incessantly and firmly refused to even accept anything of the sort. They had already lost her, and possibly Lady Lambdadelta (if she does not survive), but Wright did not want to lose his friend. The friend who had stuck with him through thick and thin.

The friend who wanted to leave everything behind to put a stop to this.

"This might even be our last conversation," Knox laughed, but it sounded strained. "Wright, this is my fate."

"It is not, you old fool!" Wright slammed his hand again on Knox's table. "Think of the people who you're going to leave behind! Think of your daughter!"

Dlanor was the world to Knox. Ever since her mother died, Dlanor was the only family to Knox, and he treasured his daughter very dearly. He loved her very much, and he had entrusted his beloved daughter to Lambdadelta, trusting that Lambdadelta would keep her safe, or at least entrust her to good hands. So it was very puzzling to Wright at how Knox wanted to just give his life away to save the rest and abandon his only daughter. He doesn't even know if Knox's death could ensure the guarantee of the preservation of the many lives he intends to preserve.

Hell, Knox's death could even be the start of the loss of many other lives.

"My death is set, Wright," Knox explained. "It cannot be averted at all."

"And what does that exactly mean?" Wright glared at Knox.

Knox took a deep breath, hoping that his friend would at least understand. "Please, Wright. This is as much as I can tell you."

"This is as much as you can tell everyone!"

"I have no choice, Wright!" Knox exclaimed. "This is to permanently stop Lady Aurora's madness!"

It was a tense situation, and Wright refused to accept that Knox was right. He didn't even want to hear anything else on the matter, but he knew that the game was going on for too long. It was more in the name of pride; ever since that witch allegedly perished in the game, no one ever dared step up to the Witch of Theatregoing, Spectating and Drama.

And Knox apparently gained a backbone by wanting to risk his life.

"...I can't stop you, can I?" Wright looked at his friend with a very regretful frown on his face. The normally stoic, strict and level-headed man of the SSVD usually would never display any form of emotion, but when it came to the knowledge that you were about to lose your best friend...

What could you do?

What could you do but show them in that last moment that your friendship with that friend left a large impact in your life?

And Knox could only laugh softly, sadly, quietly.

Lambdadelta herself wasn't any better at all.

As she thought, sought help and did everything she could to solve the game, but there was only one conclusion that she could delve into, and she refused to accept it. She refused to accept the fact that the game was practically unsolvable if the rules were to be constantly applied and used, mainly because it reminded her of Knox's upcoming death. The days were cruel to her, and the nights did not provide her rest.

The nights were ghastly. Featherine almost completely had her body in her grasp, and every alternate night, Lambdadelta could feel her hands roaming everywhere. It was such a sickening feeling, and she even wondered why she had let herself be treated as such. It was wrong, vile, utterly disgusting, but Lambdadelta endured. She endured everything that Featherine had thrown at her, and she strengthened herself with only one reason.

If she were to defy Featherine at this period of time, something might happen to the miko.

Lambdadelta didn't want anything bad to happen to the miko.

There was just something that made Lambdadelta want to protect the miko as much as possible. Maybe it was because she longed for someone to understand her, maybe it was because of companionship, but she really couldn't tell. The miko was practically her morality pet at that very moment, and whatever the world throws at Lambdadelta, she would endure as much as she could.

But that resolve slowly changed.

It slowly, but surely, changed for the worst.

She was growing tired. Very tired.

Lambdadelta couldn't get anything out. She couldn't even get anything out from the doppelganger, because the doppelganger couldn't even be communicated with due to it relentlessly pursuing the miko. And as time passed by, day after day, being like a decorative doll to Featherine, Lambdadelta found that she was growing tired, apathetic and a tad insane. She was even lying on the floor with Featherine on her cushions, surrounding herself with the scattered books that she would usually have this urge to put back at their respective bookshelves.

But there was one thing that she remembered to do.

When Featherine touches her, kisses her, or even embraces her, Lambdadelta doesn't release a sound.

Never in her life would she give her the satisfaction.

It reached to the point where Lambdadelta didn't care about anything anymore. She was constantly being used, manipulated and toyed with by the Witch of Drama, and she could feel her sanity slowly draining away. It was dangerous, but she didn't care. It was terrible, but she didn't care. It was insanely inhuman, but Lambdadelta found, once again, that she really didn't care. It sometimes raised the questions of 'What am I fighting for?' and 'Why am I here?'

The days passed by fruitlessly.

The nights were excruciatingly long.

And one night, when the two witches were in bed, Featherine stroked Lambdadelta's beautiful blonde hair, inhaling the scent of the Witch of Certainty, firm in her belief that she would eventually have her. Lambdadelta was awake as well, but unlike the other nights when she would usually look as passive as a blank sheet of paper, she was smiling.

Rather, she was smirking.

And before Featherine could even ask what was the reason behind her enigmatic smirk, Lambdadelta looked directly into Featherine's eyes, pulling the covers on her bare body as she spoke one single sentence.

She had a plan.

A very dangerous plan.

Maybe it would finally change everything. Maybe it would add some excitement to this terribly droll life! Maybe this would end her suffering and make her finally have something to do!

And it would be so much fun!

"You are going to lose," Lambdadelta breathed, giggling.

She was going to go inside the game herself.

A/N: Please take note that the almost!porn stuff here is necessary in the plot. If you are irked by it, please don't read it!

Also I CHANGED THE COVER HAHA LATE ANNOUNCEMENT

Extra: Mendacium Speculorum is related to Rokkenjima Hotel.

-Densetau-no-Maguro.