'All right, lovebirds. Think I cracked it,' Paula announced.
And by then, Konrad had almost forgotten about the whole deciphering thing.
They went on a long, albeit rather mundane date with Lily, doing nothing in particular, but—
Yeah. This was actually nice. Relaxing. Warm, despite the frigid weather.
Not that Haiten had much to offer, especially not now that it was past its former glory days under Konrad. But that bishop had sure taken his time praying, so—
They had nothing better to do than stroll around.
'And? What did you find?' Konrad thought while letting out a long sigh.
'I can play you the whole thing in chronological order,' the parallel brain offered. 'Or, I mean, in the order this Brigida girl experienced the events, because, yeah. They weren't chronological.'
His first wife squeezed his hand, then let go.
"Guess back to the grind for us," she noted.
And before Konrad could even ask what she meant, she disappeared.
"What?" he scowled, watching tiny snowflakes dance in the air where the little ginger stood a moment ago. "Did I piss her off by talking to you, or something?"
As jealous as the demoness could be—
'No, it was her turn to push back an invasion attempt,' Paula claimed, adding, 'Gabrielle is gone, too. In fact, you could say they have already overstayed because of your little date.'
Oh. Right. Konrad wasn't the only one always busy here.
This peaceful stroll had made him forget.
All the more reason to enjoy them whenever possible, and while they last.
But speaking of extradimensional invasions, that's how Brigida's journey had started, too.
"So, anything we missed from her commentary, or a hidden message?" he asked.
Why did she need to use such a roundabout way to tell about it, anyway?
'Well, she cut out and trimmed a lot,' the parallel brain noted. 'But you'll get a basic idea of what happened to her. And almost nothing about why or how.'
She rolled the footage of her memories, and by that—
It actually felt like watching those early silent films with an almost random frame rate.
Monsters attacked the Brave estate and kidnapped her parents, as they had already seen it. Brigida followed them to a different dimension that looked sickening and strange.
At first, her ferocity and the element of surprise helped her a great deal.
But when she realised she got stuck in there, things escalated fast, and—
Even with most of the memories sanitised, it was still not pretty.
Having lost her parents, she fought a one-man guerrilla war for almost two years. Only then did she finally find a chance to escape, but it was right into Lucifer's arms.
Now, they had already seen this part and knew that Kaede would show up, but—
That place was still terrifying.
"One thing I don't understand, though," Konrad muttered. "If Lily's past self could locate the fallen angel and fight him, why can't they do that now? Why gather his puppets and all that?"
'Not sure what to tell you,' Paula noted. 'I've yet to dig into their plans.'
True. She joined him when he chased the last necessary puppet, and they didn't talk about it yet. Plus, these were Brigida's memories, anyway. She wasn't part of those plans from the start.
They watched Kaede save her, and—cut.
"Huh?" he asked, blinking.
'She cut out every instance of them traveling, whether it's through space or time,' the voice explained. 'And she cut out a lot more, too, but I tried my best to interpolate.'
So that's why the footage was still so jittery.
And why the parallel brain remained silent for their entire date, which—
Yeah. It actually lasted well into the afternoon. The sun was already dipping down all too fast, given the winter, and the bishop had still not emerged from the abbey.
'Here is the most sped-up training montage you'll ever see,' Paula announced, and yeah.
By the looks of it, Brigida had tutored under Lily's past version for a while.
And though she spent five more or less continuous years with the dragoness—
Kaede herself had aged almost a thousand during that same period.
"But she wouldn't show us even once how she jumps off to time-travel," Konrad grunted.
Although—what did he expect?
Lily was right here with him until a few moments ago.
If she never told him anything about that, why would Brigida spoil it?
Then the scene where they met Stella played. And the calmer version of the necromancer had created two homunculi. She shaped them like Brigida's long-dead parents.
And—that's where things got real messy, despite all the deciphering.
A few frames of a fight, but Konrad couldn't even guess who their opponent was, then—
The mute girl was back in Kasserlane, but in a different era, and Kaede was gone.
"Wait, that's it?" Konrad complained, reaching the carriage in the meantime. "No mention of how she became the bishop's servant? Or what she has to do with the Church in the first place?"
"You mean Brigida?" the tiny man grunted, appearing from his blind spot.
Fuck. And both his wives were gone.
If he so decided to fight again, it would have been Konrad alone, and—
'Hey, I'm here, too,' Paula complained. 'And little miss necromancer as well.'
Ugh. But Stella wasn't the all-powerful sorcerer like she was in those future memories yet. And, um, yeah. Her presence triggered that entire standoff between them and the bishop earlier.
"That was a strange day for sure," Benedictus noted with a sigh, showing no hostility.
"Mind telling me about it?" Konrad asked, ready to summon his staff at any moment.
"As I said before, she appeared in the most secluded sanctums in my jurisdiction one day," he claimed. "With two artificial humans, no less. And a stench not dissimilar to that woman's."
He pointed in the direction where they last saw Stella, but seemed much calmer than before.
"I wanted to purge her, but she could hold her own, and—well, the Saints told me not to."
So, despite being this tiny old guy—
Bishop Cathiers was a shoot-first, ask-questions-later type of person?!
"And if you couldn't beat her, you forced her to join?" Konrad asked, furrowing his brows.
"I wouldn't say such a thing," the old man scoffed. "I told her I'd have to destroy those cursed things unless she agreed to serve the Church instead."
Pfft. Yeah. Because blackmail wasn't forcing her hand, right?!
"To my surprise, she told me she wanted to join anyway," he noted, rolling his shoulders. "Or, you know what I mean. The girl's mute, but her telepathic capabilities are insane."
That he knew. And she was quite adept at giving Paula a headache, too, but—
At least it kept her busy, so that Konrad could have his moment with his wife.
"Were you also aware that Otto Ostfeld had already kidnapped her?" he asked, focusing on the now. "That he sent her real parents into the salt mines and forced her to serve him, too?"
He wasn't even sure which one was more terrifying.
Him having to face off against her back then, or—
All the monstrosities the old Inquisitor must have done to that child.
"Why yes, I know that," the bishop scoffed. "That was her reason to join in the first place."