[Without hesitation, Jeanne d'Arc took her mother's hand and said firmly, "Mother, even so, I must go, to save this village, to save this country. I have to stand up."]
[Her mother, however, was not comforted by these words and continued to weep.]
Tohsaka Rin: "Is it really worth it? Leaving your family behind and never returning?"
Jeanne: "I believe it is. Looking at the outcome, I succeeded in protecting my homeland."
The First Emperor: "This is war. A nation is a nation. The nation comes before the family. If everyone only seeks to protect themselves and their families, then when the country falls, who will protect them? Do they expect mercy from the enemy?"
Iskandar: "Precisely. Entrusting your fate to your enemies is no different from a pig waiting to be slaughtered."
["As expected of Jeanne d'Arc. With such unwavering conviction, no wonder she doesn't regard ordinary heroes as her equals!"]
[The voice narrating the scene was none other than Shakespeare's.]
[Jeanne: "Caster, no matter how much you try to shake my heart using my mother's form, it won't work. If you're satisfied, end this now."]
["No, no, your tale has only just begun! Act Two, the curtain rises!"]
[With a snap of his fingers, the scenery around Jeanne shifted instantly.]
[The scent of blood. The stench of gunpowder. This was—]
The battlefield.
[Unable to resist or reject it, Jeanne was forced to relive the battles of her past.]
[It was fine. Even if she suffered setbacks, even if she collapsed, even if she reached her limit, she would endure.]
["No matter how many times—"]
[No matter how many times it repeated, her duty would not change. Her path would not change. Her past would not change. And she had no regrets.]
[Even if she faced her final moments, her heart would not waver.]
["I see, just as your mother said. No matter the situation, as long as you find the right course of action, you will simply push forward to the end. Marvelous!"]
[Jeanne resisted the urge to curse and could only continue playing her role in the story.]
Illya: "What a despicable old man."
Tohsaka Rin: "You really enjoy poking at people's wounds, don't you? Do you not have a single shred of positivity in you?"
Shakespeare: "Positivity? Do you mean those trite happy endings? How hypocritical and dull. Only tragedy reflects reality!"
[Even though she was a saint, she fought on the battlefield. Even though she was a saint, she still took lives.]
[The voices of the dead soldiers surrounded her, accusing her.]
["You call yourself a saint, yet you killed us?"]
["You wield the holy flag, yet you struck us down?"]
["We were not sinners. We were ordinary men, merely standing on the opposite side."]
[Jeanne silently accepted their accusations. They were right. Though she bore the title of Saint, she had still raised her holy banner and fought, harming others in the process. Such actions were hardly befitting of a saint.]
[Once, a saint had single-handedly repelled an evil dragon.]
[But all she had done was lead soldiers into battle and defeat her enemies alongside them.]
["That's right. I've never thought of myself as a saint."]
[Even with unshakable faith, one must still pray to the Lord daily, even after receiving His revelations.]
[A soldier, his head marred by a fatal wound, asked, "Then why did you stand up and fight?"]
[Jeanne: "Because even so, I believe this path leads to righteousness."]
[At her words, the soldiers crumbled into dust, vanishing along with the battlefield.]
The First Emperor: "Well said."
The First Emperor: "Pay no mind to what others think. On the battlefield, there is no right or wrong—only survival and death."
Iskandar: "Indeed. If you do not kill, you will be killed."
Mordred: "Scribe, that's not all you've got, is it?"
Shakespeare: "Haha."
["But of course! This is a tale about whether your life was mistaken and if so, whether it should be corrected. Now then, Act Three!"]
[The scene changed once more. This time, Jeanne found herself at Notre-Dame de Reims, witnessing her own coronation ceremony.]
[The ritual would only be complete once Charles VII anointed her forehead with holy oil.]
[But then, Charles VII turned to Jeanne and said, "Jeanne d'Arc, why don't you stay here?"]
[The cheers ceased. Every gaze in the cathedral turned toward her, questioning.]
[Jeanne: "...What do you mean?"
Charles VII: "I walk a different path than you. At this moment, even if the Lord Himself remains silent, I understand that you are bound to fall. You are intelligent—you must already know this."
Jeanne: "..."
Charles VII: "Jeanne d'Arc, answer me. Do you truly believe your path is correct?"
Jeanne: "...Yes."
Charles VII: "And yet you have no proof. The revelation you received was for you alone, and the results only became evident later. How can you convince anyone else that your way is the only truth?"]
[Jeanne: "—Simply put, I walk my own path. Your Majesty is different, for you harbor doubts yet still place your faith in others."]
[Charles VII's desire to reconcile with the Burgundians was the turning point that led to his parting ways with Jeanne.]
["History may later prove that you were right. But all that is mere retrospective analysis imposed by historians. At that time, in that moment, was I wrong? Can anyone truly say that I was? And Jeanne d'Arc, why couldn't you make me believe? If you had been stronger, I would have believed! It wasn't that I doubted you, it was that you doubted me!"]
[Jeanne shook her head, firmly grasping Charles VII's hand.]
["No. It was fate that Your Majesty and I parted ways here… Besides, even if Your Majesty had believed, nothing would have changed. We are but bricks in the great structure of history, each forging ahead on the paths we believe in. You may have been wrong, and yet you were also right. I may have been right, and yet I was also wrong. In the end, Your Majesty and I were merely fighting for our beliefs. Isn't that enough?"]
[With her words, the vision faded into nothingness.]
Leaticia: "...Miss Jeanne, do you truly not resent the king?"
Jeanne: "No. I was captured in war, it had nothing to do with him."
Leaticia: "But he didn't save you…"
Jeanne: "He couldn't save me. Both England and Burgundy wanted me dead. The high ransom was nothing more than an excuse."
Bluebeard: "No! Jeanne d'Arc, he betrayed you! You should hate him!"
Jeanne: "Gilles, I will never hate."
Bluebeard: "Hnnn…"
["——Now, let us proceed. The final act awaits."]
[The scene shifted once more. This time, a rotund, large-eared cardinal appeared before her.]
["Pathetic wretch, we meet again."]
["...Pierre Cauchon."]
[Facing this man, Jeanne felt a complex mix of emotions.]
[For he was the bishop who presided over her trial, the man of the Burgundian faction who condemned her.]
Leaticia: "This is the man who orchestrated Jeanne's death."
Tohsaka Rin: "To be that well-fed in that era, he must have lived quite comfortably."
Illya: "I heard he wasn't even qualified to judge Jeanne in the first place."
Waver: "Just another sickening political game."
[Jeanne: "Caster, this is pointless. Even if you recreate him in your play, it will only be a repetition of my past. Your Noble Phantasm cannot inflict physical pain, can it?"]
[Cauchon—played by Shakespeare—shrugged. "Indeed, Jeanne d'Arc. My power cannot make you shed a single drop of blood. Only true heroes like Karna, Achilles, or my Lord could do that."]
[Jeanne: "Then what is your goal?"]
["Ah, but I shall reveal that—at the climax."]
[Shakespeare, now assuming the form of Pierre Cauchon, stepped forward. The scene around them shifted once more.]
[This time, it was the place of Jeanne d'Arc's execution.]
[Everything around her seemed frozen in time. She could clearly see those who mocked her, those who watched with pity, and those who wept as they bore witness to her fate—]
[Shakespeare: "Do you understand what this scene represents?"
Jeanne: "Yes. I am aware that this is my end."
Shakespeare: "Do you have regrets?"
Jeanne: "Of course not. Because in the end, I became the foundation upon which my country was saved."
Shakespeare: "So! You claim to have no regrets. Even though there has never been, and never will be, a girl more tragic than you in this era—or in any era to come—do you still stand by that?"
Jeanne: "What an outsider sees is not the same as what one experiences firsthand. I do not think my life was tragic at all."]
[The flames rose, engulfing her. The saint who once perished in fire now stood once more, facing the man who had condemned her, in the vast, empty square.]
[Shakespeare: "Was this fate?"
Jeanne: "Yes. It is a fate that cannot be avoided, and I have no intention of escaping it."]
["Do you owe an explanation to those who suffered because of your arrogance?"]
[Shakespeare, still in the guise of Pierre Cauchon, laughed. His dark eyes bore into Jeanne, filled with the same contempt and malice as those of the judges at her inquisition.]
[Yet even so, Jeanne answered calmly.]
(To be continued.)
***
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