* * *

Precognition was an extraordinary power. Simply knowing what would happen in advance provided an informational advantage no one else could replicate.

That was why all players valued prophetic skills so highly and dreamed of possessing them. But those who could simply use a skill to obtain only the information they wanted knew nothing of the terror of precognition.

To read the future was to experience its emotions in advance as well.

One might cry during a date after foreseeing a breakup, laugh at a funeral upon seeing a future niece or nephew, or become angry in the middle of a conversation at an insult yet to come.

To everyone else, such a person was a lunatic who cried, laughed, and flew into a frenzy for no apparent reason.

Thus, those with precognition grew accustomed to controlling their emotions, until eventually they would show none even when a family member died before their eyes. And that was not even the end of it.

Just as even the finest mystery novel was difficult to enjoy when one already knew the ending, no matter how intensely a vision had moved them, they felt little when they actually experienced it. After all, they had already lived through it once.

With each successive vision, their emotions wore away, until even their understanding of what emotions were grew hazy.

A life in which they felt nothing, showed nothing even if they did, and merely imitated emotions according to their visions.

That was the end awaiting most members of the White Dragon Clan.

Not even the White Dragon Princess was an exception. No, precisely because she possessed the greatest precognition in the clan, her emotions deteriorated faster than anyone else's.

That was why the White Dragon Princesses always died young, and why their lives generally ended in suicide or death from debility. Knowing every future while bereft of every emotion, they could find no meaning even in life itself, and so they always gave up their lives with ease.

"I have served three princesses."

A clan member who had served three generations of princesses.

"And I witnessed the deaths of two of them."

A confidante who had witnessed those deaths from so close at hand.

"I saw how they gradually lost their hold on life, too."

A woman who nevertheless could never accept those deaths.

Tata continued, faint traces of sorrow and anguish surfacing on her otherwise impassive face.

"Both lost their emotions far too young. Out of duty alone, they found suitable consorts and married, then gave up on life."

It was not just Ainsha's predecessor and the princess before her. The same had been true of most White Dragon Princesses throughout history.

"Simply because they never found their destined partners."

Only a very few had escaped that miserable fate: princesses who had withstood the erosion of their emotions by joining with their destined partners.

That was why so many White Dragon Princesses had searched for their destined partners, yet few had actually succeeded. For a White Dragon Princess who knew every future, finding someone who could make her emotions well up was that difficult.

In the end, successive White Dragon Princesses had no choice but to immerse themselves in something to preserve even a little of their emotions—painting, sculpture, dance, literature, music, and the like. Primarily artistic pursuits that moved the heart or stirred the emotions.

That was also why, even within the Seven Dragon Group, the White Dragon Clan had developed with a particular focus on arts and cultural enterprises.

But even that offered only a little solace. No matter how deeply the princesses loved art, they eventually lost all that passion and met their fate.

"But you are different, Your Highness."

Knowing better than anyone how those past princesses had met their ends, Tata gazed at Ainsha and Limon with fiercely shining eyes.

"You have already found your destined partner. A companion who can make you happy."

"..."

"So please do not stop me. I no longer wish to watch a princess become unhappy."

Unlike the two previous princesses, for whom nothing could be done, Ainsha still had a chance. The possibility of falling in love like an ordinary girl, living a life of laughter, tears, and anger, and finding happiness.

Watching Tata declare without the slightest hesitation that her own life was nothing to sacrifice if it would give Ainsha that chance, Limon murmured inwardly.

'So that really was what happened.'

The reason for the betrayal had eluded him until the very end. Yet despite how unexpected it was, Limon found himself accepting it rather than feeling surprised.

Before it was a corporation, the Seven Dragons Society was a criminal organization, and at its core, it could be called a religion. Even when it had been known as the Demonic Cult, its members had been utterly united around the seven princesses. A betrayal on this scale had never made sense to begin with.

There was only one circumstance in which it was possible: when the betrayal was for the princess's sake. In that respect, Tata's actions were positively characteristic of the Seven Dragons Society.

"Ainsha, what are you going to do?"

That was why Limon turned his attention from Tata to Ainsha. He could tell that Tata would never stop or give up, if only for Ainsha's sake.

All that remained was Ainsha's choice. She now had three options.

One was to accept the desperate plea of the nanny who had raised her and stand by while she carried out her plans. Another was...

"... The reason does not matter. Betrayal is betrayal. It must not be tolerated."

To do what duty, rather than emotion, demanded of her as a leader of the criminal organization known as the Seven Dragons Society.

Whatever their intentions, plotting this without her permission and even attacking her constituted betrayal. She would therefore punish them according to the Society's laws.

Speaking without expression, Ainsha made her choice clear.

"So I will kill you."

* * *

"Your Highness, you truly have grown into a splendid princess. I am proud."

Even upon hearing those words, so cold they bordered on cruel, Tata showed neither disappointment nor sorrow. As though she had expected it—or as though it was only right—she merely smiled faintly and raised one hand.

"But I cannot simply let you kill me."

At that very moment, some twenty monks appeared throughout the studio—from above the ceiling-mounted lights, the corners of the audience seating, and backstage, where preparations for the broadcast were underway. They wore white cloth embroidered with dragons.

The Divine Dragon Unit.

The White Dragon Clan's strongest combat unit, composed entirely of unit-captain-caliber masters, projected a menacing presence at Tata's command.

"Punish me if you wish. But I will at least ruin this television program before I go."

"It does not matter. I will kill you regardless."

Like fanatics strapped with bombs, Tata and the Divine Dragon Unit were determined to carry out their plans at the cost of their lives. Like a mechanical doll, Ainsha intended to disregard everything else and execute Tata and the other traitors in her clan.

The psionics flowing from them intertwined in midair, and just as the resulting force was about to shake the studio...

"This is the trouble with the Seven Dragons Society."

THUD.

Limon set down the duffel bag he had been carrying on his back, distracting them and deftly disrupting their psionics.

Every gaze turned toward him. Ignoring them all, he fixed Ainsha with a sharp look.

"So this is your choice in the end? To insist on killing the nanny you said you wanted to save at all costs?"

"Yes."

"I see. Is that so?"

Limon sighed at Ainsha's blunt, immediate answer, delivered as though there was nothing even worth reconsidering. Then he spoke.

"Then try getting past me first."

"...?"

Perhaps his words had been too unexpected. Ainsha merely blinked, her face expressionless, as though she could not understand what he meant. Limon told her firmly.

"I'm going to change the future now, if only because this pisses me off. And I'll stop you from killing your nanny, too."

"... I do not understand. I am confused. I am bewildered."

Ainsha murmured blankly, partly because she had not foreseen a future in which Limon intervened this way, and partly because she could not understand his actions.

Tata, by contrast, smiled.

"You truly are worthy of being the consort Her Highness has chosen. With such steadfastness that you would oppose even Her Highness for her own sake, I can now rest easy and—"

"Don't get the wrong idea."

"The wrong idea?"

"I said I'd stop your princess. I never said I wouldn't stop you, too."

"..."

"Want me to make it simple?"

Tata's smile had vanished, her face looking as though a question mark had been drawn across it. To her and the even more confused Ainsha, Limon spoke languidly.

"Come at me. All of you."

He had no intention of allowing Ainsha to kill Tata, or of allowing Tata and the White Dragon Clan to hurt people and ruin the program. He would crush both sides together.

As Limon made that bold declaration, Tata could only open and close her mouth like a nutcracker doll. After a long while, she finally asked, as though seeking confirmation.

"... Are you saying you intend to fight Her Highness and all of us at once? By yourself?"

"That's right."

The sheer absurdity of that answer instead brought Ainsha and Tata back to their senses. Both spoke at once.

"You are insane. You are not in your right mind."

"It seems our prospective consort knows very little about the Seven Dragons Society."

"Why? Think I can't do it?"

"Of course you cannot."

"Naturally."

Tata and Ainsha answered immediately, in perfect accord, unlike two people who had been discussing betrayal and execution only moments earlier. It was only natural.

The White Dragon Princess was one of the Seven Dragons Society's seven princesses, whom only Sword Masters had ever been able to face. The Divine Dragon Unit was one of the seven combat units created to hold off Sword Masters and granted the honor of bearing the name of the mighty "dragons."

Facing both alone was something for which even a Monarch, an absolute being of this age, ought to have a coffin ready.

Indeed, after Billy the Kid, the Sword Wave, had suffered for his cockiness, even Sword Masters had avoided facing a princess and one of the Seven Dragon Units together.

There was only one exception: the mad dog who had fought the Seven Dragons Society more fiercely than any other Sword Master.

That was why Limon gave a faint chuckle and took something out of the duffel bag he had set down.

"Really? Then how about this?"

"What do you mean, 'how about'—?"

"...?"

Just as they turned puzzled looks toward Limon, wondering what he was suddenly talking about, Tata involuntarily closed her mouth, and Ainsha's pupils trembled.

For what Limon had pulled from the duffel bag was none other than a sword.

Of course, it was merely a sword. Though antique in style and strangely pristine, it was ultimately no more than a weapon.

Yet it unsettled them because it looked far too much like a particular sword known to every member of the Seven Dragons Society.

With a smooth, gradual shift...

Had that been all, they could still have accepted the situation. Tata would have murmured, "What an ominous replica," and Ainsha would have heartily agreed.

But Limon's hair lost its black color and turned white, as though ink were draining from it. His features subtly changed, and a scar appeared beside his eye.

Above all, those icy golden eyes froze not just the two women, but the entire Divine Dragon Unit.

"I told you, didn't I? If you wanted to get in my way, you'd need the resolve to match."

She had not known because she had not foreseen it. Even if she had foreseen it, she would never have believed it.

Faced with a reality she could never have imagined, there was only one thing Ainsha could do.

"... Hic."

She could only hiccup with an expressionless face as she stared at her destined partner—Limon Aspelder, the Seven Dragons Society's living calamity.