A certain girl’s tale 1

"Good morning, Mistress Siesta."

After changing the water and refilling the vase with fresh water for the flowers, I set the vase down near the window, then turned to the individual who was snoozing away peacefully on the bed. The girl, whose face was identical to my own, was napping in the afternoon sunlight with a smile on her face.

She didn't respond to my voice. She didn't wake up. Her name—or code name, rather—was Siesta. The detective who'd saved the world.

"The calendar says it's autumn, but the days are still hot," I said. I gazed out the window, thinking of the great tree that towered somewhere, far away. Was the lingering heat of this September sun pouring down over the man and woman who'd once detested light?

Exposure to sunlight had destroyed both Seed's cells and Hel, Nagisa Natsunagi's alter who had shone brilliantly herself. The idea that those two were now in the trunk of a tree reaching up into the sky, with dazzling sunlight pouring down around them, struck me as rather ironic and sad.

They must have made peace with the sun by now, though. If they hadn't, that tree would never have grown so big. The prince and the swallow must be sleeping peacefully in the warm sunlight.

Just as Mistress Siesta was now. "….......... "

I sat down in a nearby chair and looked at the white-haired girl on the bed.

After that final battle a month ago, Mistress Siesta should have reached her happy ending. The heart that Hel had once stolen from her had been returned, and Stephen Bluefield the Inventor had saved both her life and Nagisa's. Then,

with Kimihiko resuming his place as her assistant, she would have embarked on a new adventure.

That was the ending everyone had wanted, but one solitary thing had prevented it: the "seed" buried in her heart. Seed had given it to her, and it would continue growing as long as she was conscious. Eventually it would sprout, take over her body, and turn her into a monster.

The seed had already sunk its roots deep into her heart, and even Stephen hadn't been able to extract it. The only way to keep Mistress Siesta alive had been to render her unconscious. It was a stopgap measure, but if the seed only grew while she was awake, then we simply had to make sure she stayed asleep.

Of course, it doesn't solve the main problem. We might only be postponing an inevitable good-bye.

…Even so, I thought. Someday, we might find a way to remove that seed. The one who could do it might be an idol singer somewhere, or an agent, or the new detective, or her assistant. Someday, somebody might wake Mistress Siesta from her deep afternoon nap.

As I daydreamed about that "someday," I'd spent yet another day changing the water in the vase and gazing at Mistress Siesta's sleeping face. Our features might be identical, but my mistress's expression was far gentler than mine.

"Yes, for a little while, I'll have that sleeping face all to myself."

At present, Kimihiko Kimizuka, Nagisa Natsunagi, Yui Saikawa, and Charlotte Arisaka Anderson had left Japan for a certain country in Southeast Asia. They'd been summoned by the Federation Government, to determine whether Nagisa would be allowed to become the new Ace Detective.

The group was scheduled to return soon, provided everything went smoothly. For the past few days, as Mistress Siesta's former maid, I had been taking care of her for them.

…I'd never dreamed that I'd still be at Mistress Siesta's side at this point. "I didn't think I would live this long, either."

I had originally been an artificial intelligence created by Stephen the Inventor, who had installed me in Siesta's borrowed body. My only reason for existing had been to convey her last wish to Kimihiko and the other three, and to help them resolve their lingering issues and grow.

However, the next thing I knew, Kimihiko had declared his intent to break a taboo: He would bring Mistress Siesta back to life. Then, although it had required many sacrifices, he'd actually done it. Somewhere along the way, I had been pulled into his plan. I had unintentionally acquired a new body, and now

here I was, gazing at my mistress's quiet face.

"Was this part of your plan as well, Mistress Siesta?"

Naturally, she couldn't have predicted a future in which she would be brought back to life. Even so, I had been created solely to help with her mission; it wouldn't have been odd for her to extend a helping hand out of concern for me. After all, that was the sort of detective she had been.

In addition, while the Ace Detective kept a variety of futures in mind, she treasured the past as well.

I glanced at the clock on the wall. Once I was sure that it wasn't yet time for the regular contact from Kimihiko's group, I picked up a certain journal. Mistress Siesta had given it to me earlier, through Stephen.

Information about her past was stored in my database. However, it was nice to pick up the physical book sometimes, letting my thoughts travel back in time through the blurred strokes of the ballpoint pen.

"Forgive me, Mistress Siesta. I won't show it to anyone else." This was a memory, a record, between the two of us.

The detective's secret tale that even the assistant who'd traveled with her for three years didn't know about.

The journal began on a certain date, four years ago.