(Alice POV)
The night party began with a full moon up in the sky. The main salon was full of guests chatting about various topics related to the saint, while the most important element for me, the food, was on the edges of the salon, showing a great variety of delicious food. I won't deny that the thought of stealing all the food made me almost run to it.
Putting aside my gluttony I was surprised by the appearance of this place. I still remember how this place looked from the last time I was here, but even with prior experience, even I couldn't hide my surprise with a ceiling that was transparent from inside, allowing the moonlight to illuminate the salon alongside multiple magical devices in the form floating candle holders.
It is so obvious that they really wanted to make the soon-to-be saint feel like she is in a fairytale. Sadly, I couldn’t admire this beautiful scenery like I wanted as the king stepped forward to the crowd attracting everyone's gaze.
"I'm grateful for everyone's presence tonight. I know we have been struck with ferocious and malicious intentions, but we will not bend to them, we'll show them that evil never prevails!"(Chris)
It was a short yet effective speech, making all the guests cheer with joy. With a grin on his face, the king raised his hand stopping the cheering and pushed me in front of him.
"With a new era in front of us, I hope the new generations will be able to finish what we were unable to do. Let's enjoy the birth of our new saint, our hope!"(Chris)
With his speech finished the party officially started. As I expected the nobles immediately surrounded us like moths to the light while presenting themselves with huge grins on their faces, especially me.
I knew this was going to happen, I knew this was inevitable, but at least I wish that the king didn't drag me to the spotlight so early in the party. As a one-night princess and bodyguard of the princess herself, I couldn't allow myself to tarnish her reputation with my plebeian attitude.
I handled the nobles while trying to act like a princess and looking for any signal of the witch. I knew she is going to be at the party because I don't believe she can’t identify something amiss with our usual interactions. Luckily, it didn’t take long to find her among the crowd, but when I found her, I couldn't tell if I was happy or troubled to see "me" by her side, wearing a black mask contrary to my usual white mask.
Maybe matching the look of the mask I noticed that "I" was wearing a sleeveless black dress with low-level sandals and my hair, my most precious part aside from my chest, was braided. Thanks to the two different colors of my hair the braid gave an interesting look with the two colors intertwining themselves like snakes... or noodles.
I-I'm hungry ok? Don't judge me.
A-Anyway, I'm a little curious why Fari, Rine, and Lapis weren't here as this was supposed to be a team mission, but knowing the witch and remembering what happened on "Sweet Blood" maybe it was for the best for them to not be here.
Now with all the variables on stage, I approached the witch and "me" while hiding my mouth behind a fan that I received from one of the nobles seconds ago. See, I'm trying to act like a real princess.
"It's a pleasure to see you here wi- Miss Fayna. How have you been?"(Alice)
"You are too humble bra- Princess Talia, I'm glad to see you in good health."(Fayna)
This isn't good, my old habits almost came to light. I knew it was just a brief mistake but the gaze coming from behind the mask was sending the clear message of "Don't ruin my image!". I wasn't the only one who felt that as the witch flinched for a moment before acting like cleaning fake sweat from her forehead.
"Mi-Miss Alice, how is your condition? I woke up not long ago, so I wasn't able to thank you for saving my life."(Alice)
"Princess, Although I'm grateful for your caring worrying, please don't weigh your mind with my health as I have healed by now. My job was and still is to guarantee your safety."(Talia)
This is an amusing sight, although we were talking in each other place we acted like we knew what the other would say, as the words she said were more or less the same I would have told if the princess told me the words I just said.
"I still have no idea of how to repay you for saving my life... If you allow me, are you willing to be my first dance partner?"(Alice)
As soon as I ended my sentence everyone in the salon was surprised. It was known that it's an honor to be the first dance partner of the saint and many people desired to be the first one, so this reaction has to be expected. Ignoring the queen that was approaching us while trying to maintain her composure, it seems like the princess was a little reluctant to be her own first partner.
"I refuse!"(???)
I don't understand why, but for some god-forsaken reason I'm not aware of, one jerk stepped up as an opposition. The jerk who was against my proposition was just entering the salon, so reluctantly I looked at him a little dissatisfied. It was then I found that the jerk was a blond boy wearing an overly extravagant priest robe with a multitude of priests behind him carrying gifts of every kind.
He didn't even try to hide the disgust in his eyes the moment he landed his eyes on my hair, well, the princess's hair... goddammit this is confusing, I mean the dark-purple hair on my body.
It's not like the hair of a person determines their attribute in an instant, there have been many cases in the past where people with purple and dark purple hair were executed under the charge of being devil attribute users, although later it was found that they weren't spiritualists or even holy attribute users.
Even with the records of such tragedies, it seems that the prejudices are burrowed deep into the bones.
"Our beautiful saint, you don't have to lower yourself to the level of this... peasant if you want to show your gratitude to her. In fact, she needs and must be grateful for saving your life, it's an honor for her to be the meat shield of our honorable saint."(????)
The words of the boy filled with contempt and bias were obviously disgusting, but seeing that no one was denying his words was even worse. The princess seemed to have the same impression as me as the primary target of contempt, it would be really funny to see his reaction if he later found that the girl he insulted and depreciated was the saint he adores so much.
I was surprised by the lack of intervention of the witch, but it seems that when we weren't looking she left somewhere. I think there must be something that isn't right and she has to be there.
"Forget about this he- peasant in front of you our saint, it will be better if you can give me the honor to be your first dance partner, and also the last"(????)
So... he wants to kill me? My instincts were telling me he wants to kill me, but the reactions around me signaled something else. The princess was looking at me horrified with her eyes telling me to reject him immediately, the king looking at us from afar was tense and wanting to intervene, while the queen was stopping him while looking at me with proud eyes and the guests gasped even louder than before when I made my move.
I still don't understand the situation, but I couldn't delay our treatment, I think we want to kill me... socially. With everyone's expecting eyes on me I did the best move I could think for this situation.
"So... Miss Alice isn't against being my partner, right?"(Alice)
"Ignored!?"(everyone)
Ah... I miss this feeling, the feeling of everyone's reaction to an unexpected situation, but I don't know why is the princess also reacting like that? Maybe ashamed by my actions, the blonde boy looked at me with unhindered resentment in his eyes while trying to maintain his composure.
"W-"(???)
"Before you say something, miss Alice is my savior and almost lost her life for me. If it weren't for her then I would be already three meters underground, now if you excuse me, I have a dance to dance"(Alice)
Not caring about the opinion of everyone I dragged the stunned princess to the dance floor, the musicians were baffled by my actions but as professionals, they forced themselves to play the next piece.
Thanks to my fighting style I'm well versed in various dance styles, so to make things easier for the stunned princess I took the male role and led the dance. It took several seconds before the princess was finally able to get out of her stupor and without holding back she stepped on my feet while pretending to be an accident.
"Why did you do that?"(Talia)
"We don't have time for that, we need to return to our bodies fast as the pain will get worse and worse, by the way, this is your body, so if this leaves a mark then it's your fault"(Alice)
Although it hurt a little it was her body, so it was her own fault. The princess was amazed by my answer and, although I couldn't see her face... my face, I knew she was surprised.
"So sister, what is the plan? Miss Fayna told me you may have an idea."(Talia)
"Don't call me sister yet, it's awkward. I have an idea, but I need the help of my spirit, Azazel. I plan to use my trump card to recreate the conditions before we switched bodies. If I can overload a little space with my devil attribute maybe we can return to our bodies, after all, it was the devil energy that caused this."(Alice)
"I don't think it will work, my body is saturated with the holy attribute so it will be very difficult and painful for you to try that. There is also the setback that the power of the leader of the prophets is something completely different. We can try your idea, but I don't think it will be enough."(Talia)
"...I'm surprised by the fact that you aren't fazed by my abnormality."(Alice)
"You won't believe me; I was sincerely shocked when I learned about your double attribute. I spoke with miss Fayna before the party, and she told me that you probably have a good idea of how to resolve this. I think your plan is good but simultaneously I think it lacks impact...
I know! we can try to get in contact with our spirits while following your plan, and when the area is overloaded with your devil attribute I will release my holy attribute at full strength, thanks to the difference of power this may create a reaction strong enough to reverse our conditions."(Talia)
Although the idea of the princess is good I don't like being called weak... that being said I must acknowledge that the rank of her spirit and her stars are superior to mine.
With our plan settled and with the music finished, I dragged the princess outside of the salon in the garden's direction while sending a wink to the king. As I wrote in the note, he understood this was the signal and stopped the queen, nobles, and priests who wanted an explanation from my previous actions.
I feel a little bad, but it's never too late to repay a favor. Now with no obstacle on sight, I went to the place where I spoke with the king for the first time and where I was caught by the princess, the fountain.
Why did I choose this place? well, it's isolated enough to accomplish our plan without being exposed and the witch has knowledge of this place, so probably nothing wrong will happen.
"Sister, I couldn't say it before, but I'm asking you to forgive the act-"(Talia)
"Stop right there, I heard this conversation already, so you don't have to say anything. Besides... we have a bigger problem on our sides besides our bodies... I don't know if this is the best time to tell you this, but it involves the queen's condition."(Alice)
I could see she was even though she was wearing my mask, I bet she never expected to hear that there is something wrong with her mother so suddenly.
"I had a little interaction with the queen before the party, it was during that time when I noticed something on her... It was a small portion of m-... the prophet's energy in her body."(Alice)
"It's impossible! There's no way I wasn't able to notice something like that on her after living my entire life by her side!"(Talia)
"I don't know why, but I have seen this condition before, so I have a vague idea of how to solve this although I don't know if I'll be able to do it, how about we return to our bodies first and then we ask the witch for help?"(Alice)
Although I want to do something about the queen it's not like I can do it now, I still have to cure my mom first. It's just pure speculation, but what if the attitude of the queen changed because of that power. But in that case, shouldn't my mom also change?
I don't believe that's the case with my mom because she hasn't changed anything aside from her changing my verbal punishment to physical punishment. Sure, this isn't going to bite us back... right?
"I agree, but I'm wondering ever since I heard about you... why do you say that miss Fayna is a witch?"(Talia)
"Because she acts like a witch, she is lazy, orders everyone, likes to mess with me, likes to embarrass me, li-"(Alice)
"I see, so a brat who has an obsession with her mother, who loves revenge and who loves everyone's reaction from her stupid actions is telling me that I'm a witch."(Fayna)
"Hiii!"(Alice)
I didn't expect that the witch was nearby so you can't blame me for jumping out of fear. Fearing for the worst I immediately looked around without being able to find her, as I searched for the witch I noticed that the princess was lifting a small recording device from inside of the fountain.
"I told miss Fayna about this place as this would be the best place to execute our plan... and because here was our first personal contact, but I never expected this... level of immaturity from her."(Talia)
That witch knew what I was going to say! It was obvious this recording device was able to react only if I talked about her. I had a brief moment trying to decide whether to destroy the recording device or not when the recording device shattered on its own and deployed a fire barrier.
"Sister! we have to return to our bodies now! This barrier won't last for long!"(Talia)
Don't call me sister! That's what I want to say but I knew we don't have a lot of time. Without hesitation, we grabbed our hand while trying to get in contact with our respective spirits through direct touch.
"A-Alice!? Wha-"(Azazel/Haru)
"Azazel! Ask questions later! Release our resonance energy now! At full power!"(Alice)
Hearing my anxious voice Azazel immediately channeled his astral energy into the princess's body, allowing me to release temporarily at full power my devil energy. It went without saying that the pains the rejection appeared, as the Holy attribute rejected me.
"Kuh... This... Hurts"(Talia)
"Princess, please endure this a little more!"(Alice)
"I'll be... able to endure... if you call me... big sister..."(Talia)
"Call her sister, Alice Hol, Talia will be able to endure if you say it"(Valkyrie)
"When did you wake up Val!?"(Alice)
This wasn't the time for jokes! Yet seeing her expecting gaze and with the pain approaching unbearable levels I gave up and called her as she wanted.
"For fuck sake! Do it! Azazel! Big sister!"(Alice)
"Language!"(Talia and Azazel)
And then a shock and pain flashed through my body, making me lose consciousness for a brief moment, only to wake up with my body burning in pain and rolling on the ground. As I wondered if our plan worked in front of me was the princess... sister in her own body lying on the ground as well.
"We did it"(Alice)
"Yes... it was... interesting"(Talia)
Maybe thanks to this unusual cooperation and my many interactions with that family, at least I wasn't against for the princess to call me sister, I don't feel comfortable with calling the king father and I'll never call the queen mother because there is only one mother for me and is my mom Orie, maybe I'll be able to call the prince brother... and later I'll fight for the big sister spot, I refuse to be the little sister.
You could say this was a miracle brought by many situations and I expected to stay like tha-
"Watch out!"(Talia)
I wasn't expecting sister Talia to suddenly pull me from the ground, while I wasn't able to understand why she pulled me something fell on the spot I was seconds ago and bounced directly into the salon, shattering the windows and smashing into the food.
"The food!!"(Alice)
"So, you two survived..."(Leader)
It was him, there is no way I could ever forget the man who almost sent us to the grave. It seems that unlike our previous encounter he is completely healed and at full strength.
I could feel myself trembling and the fear of sister Talia from behind, but I knew if I show him my back then I won't know how I died. Just as I took my stance his sword was already in front of me, and milliseconds before the sword pierced my head we found ourselves inside of the salon.
Not expecting this I looked at my sis only to receive the same confused look.
"Goddammit, that hurt!"(Fayna)
Hearing the voice of the witch I looked where the projectile impacted, as it seemed that the witch was that projectile.
"Alice, Talia, I have to help Athena with that bastard if we don't want the entire kingdom to be engulfed in flames. I'll leave the remaining prophets on your hands, so don't die"(Fayna)
Seeing the serious face on the witch's face I readied myself for battle alongside sister Talia and everyone inside of the salon. Without giving me a second glance the witch's body was engulfed in flames with her hair transforming into energy before launching herself in the direction of the leader.
This was the signal for a new battle as various shadows and spiritualists entered the salon while manifesting their spirits.
