Chapter 17: A Night on a Tear-Soaked Pillow

Mia decided to have Bel stay with her and Anne in their room for the foreseeable future. The extra bed made the space feel a little cramped, but having already asked for special permission to enroll Bel, she could hardly demand an additional room as well. The arrangement also made it easier for her to talk to Bel, so she figured it was a decent compromise.

"Well? Let's hear it. What's the matter?" she asked as she sat down beside Bel on her bed.

The girl had been acting strangely since her talk with Rafina. Even now, her eyes were downcast, and her face remained pale. When she failed to respond, Mia didn't push her. Instead, she waited patiently for her to gather herself with the tender disposition of an old lady watching over her granddaughter. It was arguably the moment that awakened her inner grandmother. Eventually, after shooting Mia a few hesitant glances, Bel began to mumble her reply.

"I... remembered something."

"What did you remember?"

"Something Mr. Ludwig told me. He said that the watershed moment that sent the world tumbling toward chaos was this student council election. He was really sad when he talked about it, and he kept saying things like 'If only Her Highness had run in the election...'"

Mia listened until Bel stopped speaking, then let out a resigned sigh.

I don't know what exactly is going to happen, but it looks like I won't get to take the easy way out. Ugh, life is so much work...

Little did she know, the resignation she felt was actually the last vestiges of a blissful ignorance... because she'd completely misunderstood what Bel had said. Soon, the truth of her situation would dawn on her in all its terror, but for now, she could still give Bel an unflustered nod.

"I see. If I'm being honest, I'd rather turn down the offer to join the student council, but if Ludwig said something like that, then I guess I have no choice. I'll go to Miss Rafina and tell her I officially accept her— Hm? What's wrong?"

She frowned when she noticed Bel shaking her head.

"That's not what I meant."

"What did you mean then?"

"Mr. Ludwig said that had you run in the election against the Empress Prelate Rafina and beaten her, the flow of history would surely have changed."

"...Eh?" Mia quirked her eyebrow so hard it tilted her whole head. "W-Wait... Wh-What do you mean? But... You just said... Huh?"

Feeling a sense of rising panic, she forced herself to calm down and mentally regurgitate Bel's prior words. One by one, she parsed them...

S-She's right! She did say I have to run in the election! B-But then... that means—

...Only to panic anyway when she realized the implications. Running in the election would be an open challenge. A declaration of war. Against whom? Why, the rival presidential candidate, of course — she who struck fear into the hearts of Mias everywhere, the Holy Lady, Rafina Orca Belluga! Traumatic memories of being blatantly ignored from the previous timeline resurfaced with a vengeance and she clutched at her chest as her stomach mounted a rebellion against the rest of her body. Filled with anxiety, she looked at Bel, her cheeks twitching from her forced smile.

"O-Ohoho, what in the moons are you talking about, you silly girl? Do you even understand what that would mean?"

Bel's reply was curt and cruel. She scratched her head and said, "Not really. I just know it's what Mr. Ludwig said."

Had it been just Bel's words, there might have been room for debate, but if they'd come out of Ludwig's mouth, then she had to give them serious consideration.

"B-But... you said you dozed off sometimes, right? Then, isn't it possible you misheard?"

"Is it?"

"It is!"

"Well, I have nothing but respect for you, so if you say so, then I guess it is. I must have heard wrong."

"You must have. Oh, you silly little girl, Bel, always with the dozing off. Ohohoho."

They looked at each other and shared a laugh. Bel's laughter was genuine. Hers...

Augh! What am I doing? It's not like convincing her changes anything!

...Was more of an attempt to distract herself from an intense urge to scream. Though she'd questioned the accuracy of Bel's retelling, even as she did so, she'd known it to be a lost cause; Bel's guileless eyes bespoke the truth of her words. In other words, Ludwig really did believe that things would have changed for the better had she run against Rafina for president in the student council election and defeated her.

B-But, it's not like that stupid four-eyes can't make mistakes. Maybe his prediction was wrong. Yes, that has to be it. Old Ludwig must have gone senile and started spouting nonsense.

She drew in a deep breath to calm herself, blew it back out, and as her mind cleared, a single tear flowed down her cheek, leaving a glistening trail.

...Ahh, I get it now. This is it, isn't it? It's over. I have no choice left but to take the plunge.

She knew on an instinctual level that there was no way Ludwig could be wrong. If he'd said so, then that was it; unless she challenged Rafina in the election and won, terrible things were going to happen to everyone. Caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, she couldn't help but shed a philosophical tear for the fleeting nature of agency in this life of hers. Then, she shed a few more for good measure, though these were less philosophical and more out of self-pity for how short said life might prove to be. The big arrow guiding her way was pointing straight off the cliff, and she was just going to have to dive right off.

There's no way out of this. I'm dead. I'm done for. Ohhhh, woeful moons...

She shambled to her bed, buried her teary face in her pillow... and proceeded to fall asleep that way.

For the record, Bel was profoundly alarmed by Mia's crying, but she quickly came to terms with the sight.

Why is she— Oh, when I told her about how Mr. Ludwig took really good care of me, she must have been moved by his loyalty. And then, she probably thought of his final moments, and... she thought as she worked through the logic. Grandmother is a sensitive person with a kind heart who understands the feelings of her subjects and can be moved by them!

As a result, her respect for Mia only grew stronger.

Thus shone the lodestar girl, pointing Mia toward her path forward. It would, however, be another eight days before Mia made clear her intention to run in the election. In other words, for eight whole days, she engaged in furious procrastination, hoping against hope that another solution would present itself. Only after the struggle proved futile did she reluctantly pen the letter of candidacy and send it out.

The day her name appeared on the candidate list, Saint-Noel Academy was shaken to its core.