"Control! Are you here?!" I called out after I got back to my room on the Academy Cruise Liner. Both Deirdre and Livia were disappointed at the sudden departure of their new friend, but I was able to come up with the excuse that they couldn't be alone for very late and had to leave. The moment they bought it, I went back to the ship to talk to Control.

I assume that Gertrude is more than who she claimed to be based on your subtle exchanges after reaching the shrine.

"That was Hertrude Sera Fanoss." I immediately blurted out. Hearing myself say the name of the girl that tormented me over and over and over right at the finish line making me stumble back onto my bed.

The final antagonist? But why and how was she at the island?

"I don't know! She wasn't supposed to be there!" I raised my arms high in frustration.

Could it be that she was always there but the perspective of the game prevented you from identifying her?

I blinked, that was true. "Well, maybe?"

She also didn't seem hostile towards you, even after your exchange.

I snapped my fingers and pointed at Control. "That's the craziest part! She looked like she had no idea that the hit on me by the Offery's even happened!"

It is entirely possible that the attack was orchestrated by other members of the leadership or even a third party claiming to be the Principality.

"Why is this whole thing making less and less sense the further along we get?" I whined at how even more nuts everything was now.

The schemes and plots of humanity have always ever been intricate and frustrating. Professor Jin would have enjoyed unraveling this and turning everything on its head.

I was definitely interested in that piece of information. "Professor Jin was a politician too or something?"

No, he was actually a domestic terrorist before he became a Getter Pilot. He eventually took over as a head developer and scientist.

"Getter Pilots are weird." Was all I could really say to that.

You should know.

I rolled my eyes at the snipe but couldn't really deny it. Before our talk could proceed, someone knocked on my door. "Who could that be?"

To my surprise, it wasn't any of the people I would have expected to give me a visit.

"Marie? What's wrong?" I asked but let her in my room anyway. I noticed that she had changed back to the school uniform.

"Is your AI here?" I also noticed that she looked pretty wound up.

I am. Do you need anything, Miss Marie?

"No, I just didn't want to get surprised like last time." She said with a shake of her head even as Control became visible. She turned to me with a complicated looking expression. "Chris told me that he asked you for advice on how to get closer to me."

"Oh? Did it work?" I had to smirk when Marie suddenly turned away with her face very red. "I guess it did."

"He should have just stayed as he was. I'm the one who should be raising flags." She grumbled and my mirth suddenly disappeared with what she said that.

"Are you still treating them like video game characters?" I asked, referring to Julius and the boys.

Marie scoffed and walked over to a nearby chair and sat down. "How could I not when everything I used from the game keeps working on them?"

"But Chris just demonstrated that he can be more than those flags, didn't he?" She frowned at me but didn't give any counterarguments. Why was she still like this? The boys were pretty much her only real friends in the school even with all the people trying to curry favor with her.

"The pirates you guys took down were the Winged Sharks, right?" She asked instead. My face turned serious as I had a good idea where this conversation was going.

"Yep." I breathed out and sat on my bed. "You're wondering where the Saint's Necklace is?"

"You have it then?" She asked with a nod.

"I can neither confirm nor deny." I answered with a shrug. She didn't seem impressed at my attempt at deflection.

"You have it then."

"Yes, I have it."

"I need it." I grimaced and shook my head when she actually said those words.

"Marie, we already talked about why that could be bad." If we identify the Saint early, whether it was her or Livia, then people wouldn't be able to stay quiet about it. Who knew what would happen then? "We don't even know if you can be a Saint or even use any of the boosts from the relics."

"I can use healing magic better than anyone in the Academy save for Olivia herself. Why are you being so passive about this anyway? You already know how events will go, right?" She argued and I started to feel my head spin when I remembered how nutty everything was now.

Hertrude Sera Fanoss was on the island today and interacted with Leon and Olivia. It is safe to assume that relying on the game's events as a definite guide is no longer viable.

"What?!" Her shock and panic definitely showed that she was well acquainted with the pain that came with that name.

"She just suddenly showed up. She was operating under an alias and Livia was just being Livia. We ended up spending the afternoon with her." Honestly, everything would have been simpler if we could have just steered away from her without being introduced. There was also all that cryptic stuff she said at the end as well. At least I found out that she might not have been uninvolved with the pirate mess.

"You didn't try to kill her? That would have solved so much!" My palm met my face at the audacity of her words. Was she hearing herself?!

"Are you crazy! If I did that then the Principality would have declared war on Holfort!" I told her just as much. Queen Mylene already told me that there mustn't be a diplomatic incident between the two nations, killing a Princess would definitely fit that category.

"They're going to end up doing that anyway! At least if you had killed her, we won't have to deal with what she summons at the end of the game!" She countered, throwing her hands up in frustration. There she goes again.

"This isn't a game, Marie!" I yelled at her.

"I know!" She yelled back. We both were at a standoff until she broke eye contact first and shivered in her seat.

"But if I don't keep thinking of it as a game, then I'll probably go insane for real." She whispered, the haunted look that I saw in the Nagare returning.

"I can't give you the necklace and I can't let the Saint be revealed yet." I raised a hand when she was about to argue against that. "We need Julius and the boys to get stronger before we do any of that."

"Why would we need to do that?" She asked in frustration, probably knowing how difficult such a thing could end up being.

Each of them has the potential of defeating the Final Enemy with the Saint individually. If we can get all of them to that level of competence–

"–then we'll have an even better shot. Especially with your ship and that Super Robot." Marie finished Control's thought. Her complexion looked a bit better than it was a moment ago.

"I'll help train them up. Maybe go after the bracelet on the way sometime in our Second Year." I suggested, thinking of a few places that could work for building them up. The Elf Island should have a pretty good mid-level dungeon. "A few expeditions to some dungeons would help a lot."

"That isn't the only reason why isn't it? You don't want Olivia to get involved in what will come up." Now that I thought about it, Marie was pretty perceptive when it came to people huh?

"That's part of it." I hesitated but ultimately bit the bullet and decided to trust Marie. "Tell me, do you know about her Compelling Voice ability?"

"Yeah, she mindrapes everyone at the end of the Perfect Ending and makes them do what she wants. Why are you–fuck, she unlocked it early didn't she?" Yeah, Marie was definitely scary sharp when it comes to certain things.

"In a manner of speaking." I confirmed with a nod.

"How? Didn't that need an insane amount of affection points? I don't even think you could do it from a fresh save!" And I agreed, lending credence to my theory of Getter Rays being the cause of Livia's sequence breaking.

"Normally it would be, but…" I then went into explaining what I thought was happening to her, Control clarifying some questions about Getter Rays.

"I'm pretty sure everything you two just said belongs to a completely different genre." Marie commented with a disbelieving shake of her head. She wasn't wrong.

I would suggest against confronting Olivia about it. Continually doing so may cause her to escalate her efforts.

"So you two haven't figured out a way to deal with miss mindrape?" I shook my head and held my face in my hands at the question.

The possible solutions we have brainstormed would have likely caused an amount of mental and emotional trauma that we deemed unacceptable.

Marie was quiet for a few moments, but eventually nodded in agreement. "So don't talk to Olivia. That'll be easy for me."

"Why are you so hostile to Livia anyway?" She had been like that since the first time I asked Livia about her impressions of Marie.

"Because she gets everything! She's supposed to be a nobody but she gets everything!" The smaller girl snarled out with surprising aggression. "Even after I took everything from her, she still gets so much!"

"She has everything she could ever want and I have nothing! I have no one! All I have is becoming the Saint!" She continued her rambling but I definitely disagreed with what she said.

"Come on. You know that's not true." I told her before starting to count with my fingers. "You have Julius, Jilk, Brad, Greg, Chris, and Kyle."

"Hell, in an insane turn of events, you even have Livia herself and me." I admitted to my own surprise. Livia would definitely help Marie if I asked. I was pretty sure that both my fiancées were still mad at her though.

In contrast, Marie looked at me like I was insane. "Why do you even want to help me anyway? I was the one who hurt Angelica and Clarice."

"You are, and I'm still waiting for you to apologize to them." I reminded her with a stern look. She avoided my gaze and I just decided to continue. "But to answer your question, you remind me of someone."

"Oh? Was it a girlfriend from Earth? Gross!" She shot at me with a smirk. I snorted at her assertions and shook my head.

"My little sister, actually." Marie tilted her head at my answer.

"From the Bartforts?" Huh, didn't Chris also come to that conclusion?

"Nah, the one from my old life." I clarified as I looked up towards the ceiling.

"She was a real terror that one. Always doing what she could to get me in trouble." I began, not really sure why I was even revealing this much to her. "She even made me take the blame for the time our parents found her BL books."

"Hell, she was the one who forced me to complete the game over and over and over again just so she could see all the events. I'm pretty sure it was the reason why I even ended up here. Then again, I suppose that's why I was able to have such an advantage in–Marie?" I was surprised when I looked back down and saw Marie staring at me with wide eyes. She wasn't even doing anything about the tears that were freely falling from her cheeks.

"Big Brother?"

…

Hertrauda Sera Fanoss sat motionlessly in her chair. Her eyes fixed forward, empty, gazing at nothing. She did not give any indication that she heard the door open or that her sister entered the room.

"I'm back Rauda, I hope you haven't been lonely without me." Hertrude walked forward and placed a soft kiss on her cheek. "The island and its festival were as beautiful as they've always been. I wish that you could have seen it."

"I have good news, Rauda." She whispered to her unresponsive sister before placing the bunny plushie in her lap. "I found them. The old elf was actually speaking the truth before they took her."

An island of elves.

The ramblings of an old woman.

A dead god found deep beneath.

Its corpse exhumed and its worshipers silenced.

A rash attempt to call to it.

A price paid in the failure.

An ugly truth discovere.

A new path forward found.

"A gift from the one who can bring us Salvation and Hope." Hertrude said with a smile even as the bunny ears brushed up the sides of her sister's face.

"I even found Doom, leashed to her in every way that matters." She giggled when she recalled how subservient the so-called Bringer of Doom was to such a normal looking girl. "Such an odd image to see in contrast to all the rumors our spies said about him."

"Does that bother you, Rauda? That our savior is a woman?" Hertrude asked before reaching over and stroking her sister's hair. Regardless of her state, she still talked to Hertrauda and considered her as part of her decision making.

"We'll proceed with what we talked about." Hertrude stated as she stood up and walked to a nearby bookshelf. Taking out an old favorite of theirs and returning to sit at her sister's side. "For now, I will play along and give Holfort something to occupy their time with. That should allow Vandel to finish reviving that vaunted Dragon God of his."

She looked at Hertrauda after she scoffed at the name. "And once it is all over, I will make him pay for forcing you inside of that abomination. It shall be slow, for every second that thing has stolen from us."

"I shall carve a path to your future with the flute of the hundred demons. Then you can finally live your life, even if it has to be without me. Just wait a bit longer." Their vengeance would finally be completed. Those who were responsible for the death of their parents and loved ones would die by the end of everything. The one who did this to her sister would be left for last.

Hertrude swore it to herself.